During the period of the Special Research Projects, the allocated budget was mainly used for two purposes: strengthening the relevant literature that serves as an important reference and methodological foundation for this project, and examining the availability and structure of the data required for the analysis.

First, the working paper derived from this project, entitled “Era of Restructure: Deposit Demand Estimation and Welfare Consequences during the Japanese Mega Bank Merger Wave,” has received valuable feedback on its methodology and empirical implementation. The paper was presented at the 37th Asian Finance Association Conference held at National Chengchi University in Taipei. The paper has also been submitted to the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions & Money and has entered the review process.

Regarding the main objective of this project, which focuses on simulations of regional bank mergers in Japan, I consulted with the data provider, The Japan Financial News Co., Ltd., about the possibility of obtaining the necessary data. However, the budget of this project alone is not sufficient to support the purchase of the full dataset required for the analysis. Nevertheless, I have been able to collect partial data from the book Kinyu Mappu (The Handbook of Japanese Banks). Using this information, I constructed preliminary statistics on bank–prefecture-level deposit amounts and used them to develop a research proposal for a KAKENHI application.

As a result, I have successfully obtained the KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (若手研究) for the period AY2026–2028, and this research project will continue to be supported under the KAKENHI funding scheme.