State-backed regional bailout body to be capitalized at 20-30 bil. yen.

Oct. 31--TOKYO -- A state-backed entity planned to be set up in fiscal 2008 to help rehabilitate ailing regional companies and public-private joint ventures is expected to be capitalized at 20 to 30 billion yen, to be shouldered equally by the state, local governments and banks, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.

The government is considering having the entity handle about 50 to 100 revitalization cases using about 100 employees, including financial experts, the sources said.

The new body is viewed as echoing the now-defunct Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan, a governmental body set up in 2003 when the nation's business sector was struggling from the fallout of the end of the bubble economy. The IRCJ helped mainly major firms such as retailer Daiei Inc. and textile and cosmetic maker Kanebo Ltd.

The envisaged body is expected to concentrate on ailing local entities including public-private joint ventures that were set up in the 1980s through 90s as vehicles to boost regional economies. Since the speculative bubble burst, many of those ventures have been ...