Japan's financial services minister, Satsuki Katayama, has directed the Financial Council to study loosening regulation on money-lending businesses that lend to companies, aiming to widen the pool of funders available to growth firms and to businesses restructuring their operations. The Financial Services Agency has published the agenda for the review panel's first meeting.
The mandate, dated August 31, 2026, was issued under Article 7(1)(i) of the FSA Establishment Law. It directs the council to study "diversification of funding providers" and to make the regulatory structure governing money-lending businesses for business loans more flexible, so as to create what the letter calls a "virtuous cycle" of capital behind strategic-sector investment and corporate restructuring. The instruction traces back to the Japan Growth Strategy, a cabinet decision from July 21, 2026. The mandate itself does not specify draft rule text, a target date for conclusions, or which provisions of the money-lending framework would change; it authorizes study, not a decision.
The new Working Group on the State of Financing for Growth Companies, whose first-meeting agenda the FSA has published, is chaired by a professor at Chuo University's Graduate School of Law, with the Financial Council's chair sitting as deputy chair. The panel mixes legal academics and practicing lawyers with two market-facing members: the chief equity strategist at JPMorgan Securities and the deputy president of Sony Bank.
| Role | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Chair | Professor, Chuo University Graduate School of Law |
| Deputy chair | Professor, Gakushuin University Faculty of Law; chair of the Financial Council |
| Member | Chief equity strategist, JPMorgan Securities |
| Member | Deputy president, Sony Bank |
Observers seated at the table span the industries the rule change would touch most directly: the Japan Financial Services Association representing money lenders, the Japanese Bankers Association, the Institute of International Bankers, the Fintech Association of Japan, and the Japan Private Equity Association, alongside the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, the Consumer Affairs Agency, and the Ministry of Justice.
The FSA's agenda for the first meeting lists opening remarks, two rounds of secretariat briefings, a hearing, discussion, and closing. It does not disclose a reporting deadline or identify which specific provisions of the money-lending framework are under discussion, so the practical shape of any looser rule remains open.