Financial services in Japan ATMs are common throughout the country, especially in densely populated urban areas. In April 2007, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe asked Japan's financial regulator to draw up measures to relax the rules that separate banking and broking businesses . Financial services in Japan Financial services in Japan refers to the services provided in Japan by the finance industry: banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies, consumer finance companies, government sponsored enterprises, and stock brokerages. Japanese law defines several types of financial institutions: There are over 50 foreign banks in Japan, including Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse,
National debt of Japan Noda of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) - passed a bill in June 2012 to double the national consumption tax to 10%. This increased the tax to 8% in April 2014. The originally scheduled 10% tax increase to be implemented in October 2015 has been delayed until at least October 2019. The goal of this increase was to halt the growth of the public debt by 2015, although reducing the debt would require further measures. The DPJ subsequently lost control of the Diet in late 2012, and Noda's successor Shinzo Abe, of the Liberal Democratic Party, implemented the "Abenomics"