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Yet the reforms of Junichiro Koizumi, who led the government from 2001 to 2006, made many Japanese more optimistic. Koizumi appointed an outspoken economist, Heizo Takenaka, as the government’s financial supremo, with powers to coerce the banks into finally writing down debts and restructuring their businesses. As a result of the reforms, Japanese financial institutions emerged sound but cautious from the experience.

The gigantic pool of savings, amassed in the high-growth years by a population now ageing but wealthy, provided a reserve of capital that attracted investment banks from all over the world. Soon there was no shortage of loud lectures, delivered in the accents of Manhattan, in the bars and restaurants of Roppongi, a wealthy Tokyo district where foreign bankers go to relax. The Japanese were scorned as timid, lacking inventiveness and averse to risk taking.

Things are a bit less noisy in the bars of Roppongi this weekend.

The Japanese, of course, remained unfailingly polite through all this but they are not averse to a little quiet satisfaction. “Japan has learnt lessons from its past sour loans and has not adopted the US investment banks’ business models,” said Junichi Ujiie, chairman of Nomura Holdings.

“The lessons were rather costly. The financial authorities have tightly controlled us. So, the Japanese financial system is clean and possesses power. We can join in financial realignment as a major player.”

Nomura said on Friday it had reached agreement to acquire the back office and global IT support of Lehman Brothers.

It had already bought the collapsed bank’s businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Asia — a decision, said Nomura’s president, Kenichi Watanabe, that was taken in 24 hours. So much for timidity.

“Compared to European and American financial institutions, those in Japan are in an advantageous position,” said Yoshihiko Miyauchi, chairman of Orix Corporation. “As time goes by, this will become clearer.”

The Japanese have, in fact, been nimble in making acquisitions. But these are not without risk and there remains a fear of blundering into trophy-asset purchases as Japanese investors did in the bubble years.

The Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group said on Friday it was considering a merger with Morgan Stanley’s Japanese business. That came after it took a 20% stake in the Wall Street investment bank — an investment that at one stage last week had already lost $500m (£282m) in value.

Even the obscure Norinchukin Bank, whose roots are in finance for farmers, has just bought 0.5% of its French counterpart, Crédit Agricole, for about £166m.

Some commentators, such as Tokyo-based analyst Eamonn Fingleton, contest the idea that Japan had a “lost decade” at all, pointing to its dominance in high-tech industry and success in embracing the internet. But for those with memories of that time the lessons can all be told in three figures: The Nikkei 225 stock index touched its all-time intra-day high on December 29, 1989, when it reached 38,957. Stock prices did not bottom out until 2003, when the index fell to 7,603.

Last Friday, almost 19 years after its peak, the Nikkei closed at just 10,938.

Additional reporting: Shota Ushio/Tokyo

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