This is the first book to report the details of the current status of interfirm relationships
in Japan. Based on a unique data set of firms the authors describe the characteristics of
interfirm transactions in a manner unprecedented in the literature. Special emphasis is placed
on the nature of payment collection between firms. Payment for interfirm transactions is
usually made on account or by payment after delivery rather than by immediate payment. Thus
most interfirm transactions are accompanied by a provision of credit (i.e. lending borrowing)
from a seller to a buyer referred to as trade credit. Although trade credit is used all around
the world and accounts for a large portion of firms' balance sheets researchers lacking
detailed data have long encountered serious difficulty in clarifying how and why firms use
trade credit. In this work the authors use a huge unique data set of about 380 000 firms in
Japan during the 2007-2010 period. To grasp the entirety of this enormous data set which is
tantamount to a picture of all firms currently operating in Japan this brief summarizes
descriptive statistics and conducts univariate analyses of the data. Also provided is the legal
background of trade credit practice in Japan from the law and economics perspective. In this
manner the book furnishes vital information that can be used as a reference for future
theoretical and empirical analyses of trade credit and interfirm relationships.
