Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori told the Diet on Wednesday that the government's decision not to renegotiate the contract for selling Nippon Credit Bank to a consortium led by Softbank Corp. "is the position of the government."
Mori was responding to a question on how his administration would respond if more troubled companies ask for loan forgiveness from NCB or other insolvent banks the government has nationalized.
Major department store operator Sogo Co. recently asked the government to forgive about half of its 200 billion yen loan from nationalized Shinsei Bank, setting off a political brouhaha over a loan buyback clause put in the contracts to sell NCB and Shinsei's predecessor, the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, to private firms.