Previously, the Act required any person conducting a lending business to obtain a
registration from the relevant authorities and to comply with certain codes of conduct.
Although the Act provided for limited exemptions from these requirements, these
exemptions were not sufficient for the majority of large groups of companies operating in
Japan, both domestic and foreign, to implement a “cash management plan” or other similar
systems. Furthermore, under the Act previously it had been difficult to adequately finance
a newly created joint venture through the relevant Shareholder Entities. In order to address
these problems, the Amendments were executed.