In Tokyo, the US$17bn bail out of Resona bank is being hailed as a promising first step towards fixing Japan's fragile financial system. However, in Osaka, hub of the Kansai region where the bank has its roots, many regard it as an attack on the city itself.
Daiwa, the dominant bank in the Resona group, has a long-standing reputation for doing right by Osaka, a fierce rival to Tokyo. Not only has it lent generously to the prefectural and municipal governments, but it has also supported the thousands of tiny businesses that make up the backbone of the Kansai economy.
"Resona has been made a scapegoat to prove a point," says Shunji Koike, a leading Osaka businessman who has been appointed an outside board member of the bank following its semi-nationalisation by the Tokyo government. "We weren't the worst among the major banks," he fumes. "We were just the easiest to target."
