...This report separately presents the results of transition studies that Standard & Poor's Ratings Japan K.K. and Nippon Standard & Poor's K.K. conducted. Standard & Poor's Ratings Japan raised 9.41% of its outstanding ratings on Japanese structured finance securities in 2013, exceeding its downgrade rate of 5.10% for the year. The ratio of upgrades to downgrades (upgrade rate/downgrade rate) stood at 1.85 in 2013. The downgrade rate had consistently exceeded the upgrade rate from 2008 through 2010, but that pattern reversed in 2011 and continued to improve in 2013. Meanwhile, Nippon Standard & Poor's raised 11.76% of its outstanding ratings on Japanese structured finance securities and did not lower any ratings in 2013. In addition, in Nippon Standard & Poor's study, all rating categories showed stable performance. Overview...