Seiichiro Murakami, newly chosen state minister in charge of industrial revitalization, said the Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan will stop accepting new turnaround assignments in March, as scheduled.
"The IRCJ was set up to help banks clean up their bad debt by next year," Murakami said in an interview. "We will aggressively aid companies that can be turned around in the short time left, but we don't want to drag our feet past the deadline."
Set up in 2002, the IRCJ was given three years to bring troubled companies under its wing, and an additional two years to put them back on their feet. It will disband in March 2007.