Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR)

The Japan Credit Rating Agency is a Japanese financial services company which provides credit ratings and research for Japanese and foreign bond issuers.

The Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) is one of Japan’s key bond rating agencies and rates the vast majority of Japanese corporate debt, including asset-backed securities. It provides a number of services, including rating debt securities of all types, as well as publishing financial market, economic and industry research — and providing data as a service.

JCR covers 60% of approximately 1,000 publicly rated issuers in Japan. Among others, JCR has more than 70% of rating coverage ratio for the financial industry and is also dominant in the medical and educational sectors.

JCR has responded to globalization and bond issuers’ and investors’ demand for international ratings agencies. Its ratings are used in major overseas markets like the U.S., Europe, Turkey, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Thailand, and it has assigned credit ratings for more than 200 foreign issuers. The JCR was officially registered in the U.S. as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization in 2007 and was certified in the EU in 2011.

The JCR has witnessed many financial crises since it was founded in 1985, including the Japanese real estate bubble, the Asian financial crisis, the 2007-08 financial crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis, and the East Japan Tsunami — and considers itself to be an expert in credit risk analysis.