Nomura's name is regarded with awe in Japan. This is not without justification. Tokyo banking veterans will recall when Nomura's market capitalisation made it by far the largest securities trading and brokerage house in the world. It wasn't simply that, by taking advantage of its inflated shares, it could have bought Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.

An editor of the Far East Economic Review told me over dinner in Hong Kong: "Nomura controls both sides of capital flows. Japanese corporations are the main issuers in the international debt markets and Japanese investors, with their big savings, are the main buyers of international securities." For a time, it looked as if Nomura had cornered the market.