...will announce their fiscal year to endMarch 2009 (FYE09) results in mid to late May 2009. Although detailed information is yet to be released, Fitch expects the weakest results since FYE03, when Japan was mired in its own, homegrown financial crisis. The central factors affecting the results are surging impairment charges on the banks' equity investments and seemingly inexorable expansion of loan loss charges. The impact of the impairment of equity investments was significant in FYE09, and hardly a surprise given the 40% decline in the TOPIX index over the period. However, unless the market retests its March 2009 lows or goes even lower (representing a fall of at least 10% from current levels), Fitch would not expect further losses on equity investments of the same magnitude in the short to medium term. However, with domestic GDP projected to shrink by 6.7% in 2009, Fitch Ratings expects bankruptcies to continue rising, land prices ¡ and therefore collateral values ¡ to continue falling...