materialized, there is concern that this would inhibit industrial restructuring and the startup of new businesses, which in turn would hinder economic revitalization, particularly in regional economies. regarding the number of corporate bankruptcies since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, while it is favorable that it has stayed at a historically low level, i also consider it important for new businesses to rise in areas where growth can be expected. furthermore, in terms of the financial system, i think that attention needs to be paid to whether or not corporate debt accumulated during the pandemic will turn into non - performing loans down the road, emerging as a risk to the financial system. this is a key management issue for regional financial institutions as well. i believe that these institutions, which have operating bases that are closely connected with the region, have a particularly critical role in terms of discerning the financial soundness of borrower firms. if the issue is to revitalize underperforming firms, the role of corporate restructuring funds and other private - sector funds will also be crucial. thank you. economic activity, prices, and monetary policy in japan speech at a meeting with local leaders in oita december 1, 2021 adachi seiji member of the policy board bank of japan chart 1 confirmed new cases of covid - 19 overseas japan ten thous. persons united states europe india latin america other emerging economies thous. persons thous. persons confirmed new cases ( per day, left scale ) 5. 0 severe cases ( right scale ) 4. 0 4. 5 3. 5 3. 0 2. 5 2. 0 1. 5 1. 0 1 - feb - 20 5. 5 0. 5 1 - aug - 20 1 - feb - 21 1 - aug - 21 feb - 21 0. 0 apr - 21 jun - 21 aug - 21 oct - 21 notes : 1. in the left panel, figures for the united states, taiwan, and hong kong are from the centers for disease control and prevention ( cdc ), the taiwan ministry of health and welfare, and the hong kong centre for health protection, department of health, respectively. all other figures are from the world health organization ( who ). figures for europe are the sum of figures for the european union and the united kingdom. figures for latin america are the sum of figures for the major economies in the region. figures for other emerging economies are the sum of figures for south africa, russia, turkey, and the major economies

funding problems have been observed at resona bank. subsequent developments seem to suggest that uncertainty about the outlook for the japanese economy has become somewhat less pronounced. regarding developments in overseas economies, which have a considerable effect on japan ’ s exports, the uncertainty about the u. s. economy has subsided to some degree, and the sars problem in east asian economies has been coming to an end. against this background, in japan ’ s capital markets, participants ’ pessimism with regard to the economy and prices has decreased slightly, and stock prices have risen considerably. bank stock prices in particular have rebounded significantly. in this situation, long - term interest rates rose after falling to their historic lows of 0. 4 - 0. 5 percent. as mentioned, some positive developments were observed, but there remained various structural problems in the japanese economy. the bank will continue its efforts to conduct monetary policy in a timely manner, monitoring carefully the strength of the recovery in overseas economies, the state of the financial system, and developments in financial and capital markets. the bank is working to strengthen the transmission mechanism to ensure that the effects of monetary easing permeate throughout the economy. as part of its efforts in this regard, the bank has been preparing to commence purchases of asset - backed securities ( abss ) from july 29, 2003. although it is unusual for a central bank to directly take on the credit risk of private debt obligations, the bank considers that, with the weakness of banks ’ financial intermediary function, it is important to encourage the development of the abs market. in formulating the specific details of abs purchases, the bank has paid due attention to contributing to the smooth financing of small and medium - sized firms. with regard to underlying assets, a broad range of assets will be deemed eligible, including receivables, loans, and lease claims. furthermore, the bank has decided to purchase securities with a bb rating or higher. this decision is based on the fact that there have been only a few investors purchasing securities with lower credit ratings, and this has been impeding development of the abs market. the ceiling on the bank ’ s purchases is to be set at 1 trillion yen for the time being. the abs market is expected to become one of the most important financial markets in japan in the future. the bank hopes that the bank ’ s purchase of securities will contribute to the autonomous development of the market. iii. purchases of stocks held by commercial banks the bank started to purchase stocks