Goldman Sachs to Buy Bad Loans in Japan

Goldman, Sachs & Co. plans to buy as much as $3.86 billion in bad loans from Japanese banks in a bet that the Japanese real estate market will rebound, Nikkei English News reported. The New York-based firm expects property prices, which have fallen 74% in Japan’s biggest industrial areas since 1990, to hit bottom soon and begin a recovery, the news service said. The move comes as the Japanese government’s efforts to deregulate financial markets create broader opportunities for U.S. securities firms.