Apr 14, 2000 - 08:14 AM

Japan Corporate Bankruptcies Surge 39.5 Percent in March

The Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) - Corporate bankruptcies in Japan surged 39.9 percent in March from a year earlier, marking the fifth consecutive increase, a private credit research company said Friday.

Most of the 1,770 bankruptcies hit smaller firms. All but 54 of them were capitalized under 50 million yen, or $467,000, Teikoku Databank said. Liabilities left behind by the insolvent companies last month fell 46.4 percent from February to $6.04 billion, it said.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, the number of bankruptcies fell 3.5 percent to 16,887 from the previous fiscal year. Liabilities in the latest reporting year totaled $105.24 billion, down 25.8 percent.

Despite some signs of an economy recovery, many companies continue to close or scale back unprofitable divisions and reduce jobs to try to bail out of the country's worst recession in 50 years.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGIOTZPR17C.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 14, 2000