Helping them to close their books in September would not deal with the banks' basic challenges: how to write off bad loans and where to get the money to do it.

ECONOMIST: Can’t get started | The

They have relied on windfall bond profits to help write off their bad loans.

ECONOMIST: Japan��s economy

One issue is how the banks are to write off their bad loans.

ECONOMIST: Bank reform in Japan

Although a few big, well-known companies folded after the stockmarket fell, banks have in fact had to write off very few bad loans.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

Worse, structural reform and a write-off of banks' bad loans may only intensify deflationary pressures.

ECONOMIST: Japan��s economy

Most pressing is the need to restructure Japan's banks: many of these have bad loans which they are reluctant simply to write off.

ECONOMIST: Jump-starting Japan | The

Worse, problem loans are turning bad as fast as the banks can write them off.

ECONOMIST: Asian banks

Cut the level of bad debt by requiring banks to use their profits for the next five years to write off problem loans.

FORBES: The ghost of Chiang Kai-shek