Poor English saved Japan's banks from crisis
Japan's banks emerged from the global credit crisis largely unscathed because managers did not speak English well enough to have got them into trouble, the country's finance minister has claimed.
Taro Aso said that bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players in the 2008 crisis, so had not bought them.
"Many people fell prey to the dubious products, or so-called subprime loans. Japanese banks were not so much attracted to these products, compared with European banks," Mr Aso told a seminar in Tokyo.
"Managers of Japanese banks hardly understood English, that's why they didn't buy," he said.
It is the latest in a line of eyebrow-raising pronouncements from Mr Aso, who was once prime minister and now also serves as deputy prime minister.
συνέχεια εδώ
Japan's banks emerged from the global credit crisis largely unscathed because managers did not speak English well enough to have got them into trouble, the country's finance minister has claimed.
Taro Aso said that bankers in Japan had not been able to understand the complex financial instruments that were the undoing of major global players in the 2008 crisis, so had not bought them.
"Many people fell prey to the dubious products, or so-called subprime loans. Japanese banks were not so much attracted to these products, compared with European banks," Mr Aso told a seminar in Tokyo.
"Managers of Japanese banks hardly understood English, that's why they didn't buy," he said.
It is the latest in a line of eyebrow-raising pronouncements from Mr Aso, who was once prime minister and now also serves as deputy prime minister.
συνέχεια εδώ