How existing policyholders would react to this apparent complicity between company and ministry to mislead the public was not immediately clear, but the episode was unlikely to restore any luster to the Finance Ministry's already tarnished image. Cleaning up the Nissan Mutual mess is likely to be more complicated than dealing with banks in Japan that have failed or been restructured. For one thing, with only 29 domestic life insurance companies, the failure of even one looms much larger than the collapse of a single bank out of more than 100 by conservative count. Nissan Mutual by itself accounts for at least 1 percent and as much as 2 percent of the life insurance industry's business, depending on the yardstick. Recapitalization is complicated by the fact that, as a mutual company, Nissan Mutual and most other life insurance providers have no stock outstanding.
Rescuers are likely to be few in number as well.
Ltd. In 1940 the insurance company renamed itself after the growing industrial giant with which it was developing close ties. The insurer also has long-standing relationships with the Hitachi Group. Even today, business with Nissan Motor and Hitachi Group companies account for 70 percent or so of Nissan Mutual's insurance lines. Insurance is one of the few types of business where keiretsu linkages among companies still are said to be strong, in part because the traditional lack of competition among insurers in Japan has left companies like Nissan Motor with little incentive to shop around. Despite a long history of business ties, the number-two Japanese automotive maker was reported in the local press as insisting that its relationship with Nissan Mutual was that of customer, implying that aid would not be forthcoming.