TOKYO, Nov 16: Japan has agreed to accept an International Monetary Fund (IMF) assessment of the country’s moribund financial system, according to a report Friday.

The Japanese government would welcome some 10 experts from the global financial body in early December, Jiji Press news agency said, without citing sources.

The inspection is aimed at removing concerns over the health of Japanese banks which have been languishing under a mountain of bad loans since the economic bubble burst in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Hakuo Yanagisawa, state minister in charge of financial affairs, had so far said Japan may accept an IMF audit, but stressed it had the right to decline such a probe because the inspections are purely voluntary.

As a first step, the IMF experts would check administrative procedures by the government’s Financial Services Agency and an accounting system by the Bank of Japan, the Japanese press agency said.

But Japan insists a separate IMF inspection on bad debts held by Japanese banks should come after April next year, when the country is to introduce a new safety net system which limits government support for depositors in case of a bank failure.

The IMF has long asked the Japanese government to accept its audit to assess the country’s financial system, including the state of problem loans at banks. Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.—AFP