Size means protection -- the strategy of Japan's bank mergers

That is not quite correct. The protection sought is primarily from foreign competition, and it is desired by both the banks and the strategy-making bureaucrats at the Ministry of Finance. Look again at that press conference in August 1999, at which the merger to produce Mizuho Bank was announced. In his remarks on the matter, Masao Nishimura, then president of Industrial Bank of Japan, one of the three banks to merge, was subtly but unmistakably anti-foreign in his celebration of the new bank's power and strength. Nishimura retired last month as chairman and co-chief executive at Mizuho Holdings Inc.