The spread of social networking services has further increased the risk…A history of “bank run-ins,” which have unexpectedly occurred in Japan

Then, on November 26, 1997, the largest postwar “run on the house” broke out all over the country.

On the 3rd, Sanyo Securities, on the 17th, Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, on the 24th, Yamaichi Securities, on the 24th, and every week in November of that year, major financial institutions went bankrupt one after another. The collapse of Deogyang City Bank on the 26th triggered an outbreak of nationwide panic.

From major banks such as Yasuda Trust & Banking, Mitsui Trust & Banking, Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, and Nippon Credit Bank, which had long been rumored to be in financial trouble, to major regional banks such as Ashikaga Bank and Kiyo Bank, there were long lines of people waiting to cancel their deposits before the doors of their branches in Sapporo, Utsunomiya, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and many other locations throughout Japan. Before they even opened, long lines of people were waiting in front of their branches to cancel their deposits.

Queues also formed in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka

I remember this event vividly as I was working at a securities company in Kabuto-cho, Tokyo, in 1997. I remember feeling a strong sense of anxiety about what was going to happen to Japan.

In accordance with a notice from the financial authorities and the bank’s internal manual, the bank tried to make the lines and congestion as inconspicuous as possible by letting depositors who had lined up outside into the store before it opened and asking them to wait in reception rooms or conference rooms, in order to avoid the panic that would have resulted from the lines.

At one branch of Yasuda Trust & Banking, the numbering of numbered tickets was stopped at ninety-nine, and after the ninety-ninth person, no matter how many, was given the “ninety-ninth number. It was a measure to prevent upsetting depositors.” (“Ten Years of Financial Straying,” Nihon Keizai Shimbun, ed.

Fortunately, almost all the media “refrained” from reporting on the installment, so the furor did not spread any further.

Except for telephone calls and word-of-mouth, newspapers and TV and radio news were the mainstream for information transmission in those days. At that time, the number of Internet users was limited and there were no social networking services such as LINE or Twitter. The first iPhone went on sale in June 2007, 10 years before the first iPhone was released.

Never underestimate the power of SNS

However, a major difference between Reiwa’s era and 1997 was the spread of the Internet and SNS, as symbolized by the bankruptcy of SVB in the U.S., where messages and videos spread quickly via SNS, and the spread of Internet banking, where large amounts of money can be transferred with a single click, It will give financial institutions and financial authorities no time to prevent the outflow of deposits.

As was the case with SVB, a system downtime caused by a concentration of depositor access would add fuel to the fire. Now, installations do not happen at the bank counter, but online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

At an April 6 meeting of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance and Monetary Affairs, Minister of Finance Shunichi Suzuki also stated that “credit concerns have advanced at a very fast pace due to the use of SNS and other factors,” and that “Internet banking, which does not depend on time and place, has accelerated the outflow of deposits.