The number of corporate bankruptcies jumped 23.4 percent to 19,071 in 2000, with liabilities left by the bankrupt firms reaching a new postwar high, Teikoku Databank said Friday.
Total liabilities surged 77 percent to 23.99 trillion yen, surpassing the 20 trillion yen mark for the first time and far exceeding the previous record of 14.38 trillion yen set in 1998, the private credit research agency said.
The number of bankruptcies marked the first year-on-year rise in two years and was the fourth largest in the postwar period. The data covered bankruptcies with liabilities of 10 million yen or more.