Law enacted to set up corporate turnaround entity for small firms+

TOKYO, June 19 Kyodo -
The House of Councillors passed a bill Friday to establish a corporate
turnaround entity for financially troubled but otherwise viable small and
midsize firms.

The new entity will be modeled on the defunct Industrial Revitalization Corp.
of Japan, which was tasked with rehabilitating excessively indebted large
companies from 2003 to 2005.
The organization will be capitalized at 20 billion yen, with the government and
commercial banks sharing the cost fifty-fifty. The government aims to launch
the entity in September, with an eye to selecting the first company it will
resuscitate by the year's end, government officials said.
The agency will reduce the debts owed by troubled small firms and assist their
fundraising. It will accept support requests for two years from the start of
the operations and will be disbanded in about five years, like the IRCJ did so
in 2007.
==Kyodo