The number of corporate bankruptcies across Japan in April fell to 948, slipping below the 950 line for the first time in 13 years and three months, due partly to the government's expanded safety-net loan guarantee program for smaller firms.
Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Wednesday that bankruptcies for the reporting month shrank 20.3 percent from the previous year, falling for the 28th straight month.
According to the private credit research firm, combined debts left by failed firms fell 36.5 percent to 388.27 billion yen, falling for the third straight month.
The combined debts dropped below 400 billion yen for the first time in five months, it said in a report covering failures involving debts of 10 million yen or more.
For the second straight month, there was no bankruptcy involving debts of more than 100 billion yen.
In April, corporate failures involving liquidation-style bankruptcy proceedings came to 414 cases, or 43.7 percent of the total for the month, the second-highest ever, it said.
Failures of blue-ribbon firms in business for 30 years or longer numbered 269, or 28.4 percent of the total.
The research firm said bankruptcies also declined in April because more companies are less dependent on issuing promissory notes for business transactions.
But it warned the situation does not warrant optimism.
China, a major destination for Japanese exports, is still bristling with anti-Japan sentiment, and the U.S. economy is developing more signs of a slowdown with giant U.S. automakers doing poorly, it said.