Taiga Uranaka

Mizuho Financial Group Inc.’s chief executive officer suggested that an outsized interest rate increase by the Bank of Japan would be better for the nation’s bond market.

The Japanese regional bank with the best recent record for trading bonds has started buying Japanese government debt for the first time in a decade.

In the midst of a 15-month negotiation to secure a foreign backer last year, Indian lender Yes Bank Ltd. was given an informal nod from the nation’s central bank: The Japanese bidder was the preferred choice.

When Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. was created from the aftermath of Japan’s financial crisis more than 20 years ago, the newly merged company set out to become one of the world’s most valuable banks.

The bankruptcy of Zentoshin Co., an Osaka-based credit card payment processor, threatens both the regional banks which funded it as well as the small and medium-sized restaurants that relied on its services.

Creditors across Japan are trying to claw back more than $700 million from a payments firm suspected to have faked its financial statement for at least 20 years and abruptly collapsed into bankruptcy this week.

The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion ($709 million), according to Tokyo Shoko Research. The creditors are mostly regional banks and other local lenders, with the biggest amount owed to Kinkisangyou Shinkumi Bank in Osaka at about ¥22 billion, the credit research firm wrote in a report.

Japan will relax rules on bank lending for M&A and encourage pension funds to invest more in alternative assets as part of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s economic growth initiatives.

A proposed merger between Iyogin Holdings Inc. and Ehime Bank Ltd. adds to a series of recent M&A activity between Japanese regional lenders as an aging and shrinking population weighs on their business.

Japan’s Orix Corp. has agreed to buy AerFin Ltd., a UK-based airplane parts company, in a deal worth about ¥100 billion ($640 million) including debt, people familiar with the matter said.