Small, regional banks have a tough time trying to get you to switch your business from megabanks, whose main benefit to average consumers is the fact that their branches can be found anywhere in Japan. More locally situated banks tend to grow up around local commercial customers, but they need average borrowers, too. The trick is: How do they make up for the lack of a widespread presence?

One obvious solution is to offer services and products that other banks don't, and in that regard Jonan Shinyo Kinko, which is headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is quite creative. Perhaps their most controversial gimmick is a "lottery savings account," a deal that was apparently frowned upon by the Finance Ministry but which has been copied by some other small banks. If you keep a certain amount of money in a special savings account, the bank will buy lottery tickets for you, and they guarantee that your odds of winning are greater than if you bought the tickets yourself.

The latest product from Jonan (which means "south of the castle," thus indicating Shinagawa's position in relation to Edo Castle) is much more edifying. The bank believes that Japanese society is "not safe" as long as it relies so much on nuclear power for its energy needs, and wants to encourage not only conservation but also the promotion of renewable energy sources. For its own part, Jonan has pledged to reduce its own energy consumption by 30 percent over the next three years by resetting its air conditioners and heaters, applying energy saving fixtures and facilities, installing better insulation and buying into a self-generating power system for its own offices.