Japanese banks are back. Fifteen years ago the bursting of Japan's economic bubble forced the country's once-mighty banks to scale back their international ambitions. But after a long convalescence, they are back strutting the world stage again.

Yesterday, brought two of the most dramatic moves to date - Nomura's acquisition of Lehman's operations in Europe and Asia, and Mitsubishi UFJ's expected purchase of a 20 per cent stake in Morgan Stanley for $9 billion.

Nomura's international expansion came unstuck during the 1990s, partly because the company's culture proved hard to adapt to overseas markets. It retreated to its huge home market. But as more US and European rivals moved into Japan, it decided it had to be able to compete internationally.

The Lehman acquisition gets it a long way down the track with one, very cheap deal. With yesterday's decision by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to turn themselves into banks, Nomura becomes the world's biggest independent investment bank with a market value of $25 billion and 16,000 employees.

There are real challenges ahead, not least in cultural terms, but at least Nomura seems to have been able to address one of the perennial complaints about its bureaucratic management structure - the glacial pace of decision-making. Some Lehman executives were sceptical that it would be able to meet the very tight timetable demanded by the insolvency, but it managed to agree the deal over a weekend.

Japanese banks have come through the credit crunch relatively unscathed, which is why MUFG can splurge $9 billion on its Morgan Stanley stake. The giant had already signalled its interest in expanding in investment banking in America and took a stake in the investment banking boutique launched by Joe Perella, the former Morgan Stanley banker.

The unusual sense of urgency the Japanese are showing is understandable. It won't be long before the Chinese are in the market, too.

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