Almost two decades ago seven of the world's top-ten banks were Japanese and their cheap loans supported Japanese investment, from the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan to California's Pebble Beach golf course. After Japan's property and stockmarket bubbles burst, the banks, buckling under bad debts, retreated home. More recently, the caution born of that fall from grace spared them the huge sub-prime-loan losses that have hobbled their American and European peers. Now their relative financial health has pushed Japanese banks tentatively abroad again.
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