Lessons From Japan in Stemming a Crisis - NYTimes.com

Lessons From Japan in Stemming a Crisis - NYTimes.com:

A reminder from Japan: Don't coddle the banks, act swiftly, and force the banks to write off bad debts.

"I thought America had studied Japan’s failures,” said Hirofumi Gomi, a top official at Japan’s Financial Services Agency during the crisis. “Why is it making the same mistakes?”"

and later

"... Japan’s financial system did not start to recover until late 2002, six years after the crisis broke. That year, the government ...ordered a tough audit of the country’s top banks.

Called the Takenaka Plan...initally, banks lashed out at Mr. Takenaka....

But Mr. Takenaka stood firm. His rallying cry, he said in an interview on Wednesday, was, “Don’t cover up. Don’t distort principles. Follow the rules.”"