Joining the Mitsubishi UFJ orbit — a 20% stake, and Nippon Shinpan’s instalment book (2008)

Turning a crisis into a chance to choose

The core of this decision is that it turned a crisis into an opportunity to pick and choose. The revised Money Lending Business Act struck credit companies and consumer lenders alike, but what separated those that sank from those that floated was how much of the bill for past high interest — the refund liability — each was carrying. Jaccs had lightened that bill by cutting its rates in 1997 and had kept balance-sheet room by staying out of property. It could therefore take on only the customers it wanted from a damaged Nippon Shinpan, and invite in a megabank’s capital without trading away its independence.

The open question is where to set the distance between independence and affiliation. The alliance struck at 20% in 2008 deepened to 40% in 2025, with directors seconded as well. With the grey zone gone, interest income can no longer be relied on, and rising rates push up funding costs; there is a limit to what a single credit company without deposits can do alone. The drift toward a megabank’s capital and customer base reflects a reality in which survival in this industry is hard to sketch on one’s own. A company that began as a small credit-sales firm in Hakodate, having defended its independence to the end, is now preparing to take up the next role — as a core of the group it joined.