Published on Jul. 31, 2023
Apart from a brief downturn after the Tokyo Olympics, Japan recorded rapid growth from the 1960s through to the mid-1970s. The Japanese economy demanded massive amounts of capital during this period. Consequently, city banks and regional banks competed intensely to attract depositors, leading banks to develop more and more sophisticated banking services, beginning with automatic payments of utility bills and an increasing variety of deposits and loans. These services, however, caused considerable expansion in internal bank paperwork and fueled demands for ways to rationalize clerical work and save on labor.Banks started online operations midway through the 1960s (the first online banking movement), but most banks’ online operations were limited to single accounting items, such as deposits (Mitsui Bank and others) or domestic exchanges (Regional Banks Association of Japan and others). The second online banking movement, however, which got underway around 1974, included many more operations in keeping with the growth in banking services. These included not only loans, discounting of bills, and foreign currency exchanges but also expense accounts and others. Ultimately, the majority of accounting item operations went online. In this way banks’ integrated online systems were constructed both in name and substance.