Corporate bankruptcies in Japan continued to grow in July with combined liabilities topping 4 trillion yen, the largest on record in postwar Japan, a private credit research agency said Monday.

The total liabilities left by companies that failed in July skyrocketed 214.7 percent from a year earlier to 4.26 trillion yen, Teikoku Databank said in a report covering failures involving liabilities of 10 million yen or more.

The number of bankruptcy cases jumped 21.4 percent from a year earlier to 1,617, marking the ninth consecutive monthly rise, it said.