Yamaichi hid ¥265 billion for five years — a magazine exposed it and the firm died

During Japan's 1980s asset bubble, Yamaichi Securities — founded in 1897, one of the country's four major brokerages — accepted specified sums from 10 corporate clients to invest at its discretion. When the bubble burst in the early 1990s, those positions generated losses exceeding ¥200 billion. Rather than disclose the losses, executives shouldered them and moved them off the balance sheet.

In January 1992, Yamaichi set up a separate entity called Yamaichi Enterprise, which opened an account at Credit Suisse's Tokyo branch and deposited ¥200 billion in Japanese government bonds. Dummy companies generated apparent profits for the favoured clients while quietly absorbing the losses. A parallel scheme using foreign-currency bonds hid a further ¥106.5 billion in Yamaichi's Australian subsidiary. Total concealed losses reached roughly ¥265 billion.

In April 1997, the weekly magazine Toyo Keizai published an investigation exposing the tobashi arrangements. On 24 November 1997, Yamaichi announced it would cease operations. Chairman Tsugio Yukihira later told a Diet hearing that the trades were illegal and that only three people at the firm had known. Last president Shohei Nozawa wept on national television. The Tokyo District Court declared Yamaichi bankrupt on 2 June 1999.

The Bank of Japan provided emergency liquidity under Article 38 of its law to allow orderly settlement of customer assets and overseas positions, calling the support an exceptional and temporary measure. The closure came amid a broader wave of Japanese financial-institution failures during the Asian currency crisis.