National Finance Corporation

A government financial institution established in 1949 (Showa 24) to take over the operations of the People's Finance Corporation and the Pension Finance Corporation. It was established based on the People's Finance Corporation Law with the purpose of "supplying necessary business funds to the general public who have difficulty obtaining financing from banks and other general financial institutions." To achieve this purpose, the main lending activities were ordinary loans, pension secured loans, registered government bond secured loans, and loans for further education. Of these, ordinary loans, which refer to loans to small and medium-sized business owners to fund their livelihoods, accounted for the overwhelming majority, but the Small Business Management Improvement Fund Loan System was particularly important as a system for improving the management of small and medium-sized businesses by providing unsecured and unguaranteed livelihood funds. The only sources of funds for lending were government investments and loans from the government. The officers consisted of a Governor, Vice Governors, Directors, and Auditors. The Governor and Auditors were appointed by the Minister of Finance with the approval of the Cabinet, while the Vice Governors and Directors were appointed by the Governor with the approval of the Minister of Finance.

As part of the government's consolidation of financial institutions, it merged with the Japan Finance Corporation for Environmental Sanitation in October 1999, and restarted as the Japan Finance Corporation for National Life, inheriting its previous objectives and operations. The Japan Finance Corporation for National Life was dissolved in October 2008, and its operations were taken over by the Japan Finance Corporation. As of March 1999, prior to the merger, the company had capital of 241,914 million yen, 4,797 employees, loan performance of 3,780.7 billion yen (from March 1998 to March 1999), and loan balance of 9,642.7 billion yen.

[Hara Shiro]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1949年（昭和24）に庶民金庫および恩給金庫の業務を承継して設立された政府金融機関。「国民金融公庫法」に基づき、「銀行その他一般の金融機関から資金の融通を受けることを困難とする国民大衆に対して、必要な事業資金等の供給を行うこと」を目的として設立された。この目的を達成するため、普通貸付、恩給担保貸付、記名国債担保貸付、進学資金貸付などを主要な貸付業務として行った。このなかでは中小零細企業者に対する生業資金の貸付を意味する普通貸付が圧倒的な比重を占めたが、なかでも小企業等経営改善資金貸付制度は、無担保・無保証の生業資金の供給によって小零細企業の経営改善を図るためのものとして重視された。貸付のための原資は、政府出資のほかは、政府からの借入金のみであった。役員は総裁、副総裁、理事、監事からなり、総裁および監事は内閣の承認を得て大蔵大臣が任命し、副総裁および理事は、総裁が大蔵大臣の認可を受けて任命した。

　政府金融機関統廃合の一環として、1999年（平成11）10月環境衛生金融公庫と統合し、これまでの目的・業務を継承する形で国民生活金融公庫として再スタートした。なお、国民生活金融公庫は2008年10月に解散し、その業務は日本政策金融公庫に引き継がれている。統合前の1999年3月時点で、資本金2419億1400万円、職員数4797人、融資実績3兆7807億円（1998年3月～1999年3月実績）、融資残高9兆6427億円。

［原　司郎］

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