one of the principal government-funded Japanese financial institutions, which provides a wide range of services to support and encourage Japanese trade and overseas investment. Headquarters are in Tokyo.

The Japan Export Bank was established in 1950; its name was changed in 1952, when its activities expanded to include import financing. The bank's principal activity is the provision of low-cost loans to support corporate growth; these activities include, for example, credits for exports of heavy industrial products and imports of raw materials in bulk. The bank also provided loans to developing countries to allow them to import Japanese products.

The bank came under increasing pressure from other countries, particularly from the United States, to change its one-sided trade policies and growing trade surpluses. Therefore, the bank began to develop some programs to assist in management of the global economy. In 1986 it began to work in cooperation with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to cofinance loans to less developed countries.