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212,000 citizens filed for personal bankruptcy in 2002

Akahata has found out that 212,000 people filed for personal bankruptcy in Japan in 2002, up 50,000 from the previous year and the highest number ever.

A trader in Chiba Prefecture, whose sales fell, was forced out of business with a debt of 20 million yen. Unable to repay the money he borrowed from a non-bank money lender in order to survive and to repay his other debts, he went bankrupt last October.

Lawyer Kimura Tatsuya, secretary general of a national council on consumer-credit problems, said that the government, which has failed to take any effective measures to overcome the recession, is responsible for the sharp increase in the number of bankruptcies. (end)