ABSTRACT
Only recently, and for the first time, have Japanese bankers begun to think of themselves as equals of Anglo-American bankers in the City of London and that Japan has caught up with the West in its own unique way. The Japanese actively participated in the international financial businesses of the City of London in the 1970s and its boom in the 1980s, based on the high value of the yen. They bought properties aggressively, invested in internationally syndicated loans, tried to finance local companies, and participated in new financial businesses such as options and swaps. Japanese bankers felt as if Japan had finally become a member of the Western élite. Some Japanese leaders felt they no longer needed ‘to catch up with the West’ and that they were now respected in the world. They thought that they had realised their aim of equality with the West to which they had aspired since the late nineteenth century when Japan came out of isolation. Their active participation in international financial businesses in the 1980s was looked upon as another Japanese economic miracle like that of manufacturing industry of the 1960s.
