Twenty-one finance managers from Japan looked to ISU for counseling and financial help last week.

An eight-day workshop was held by Tahira K. Hira, one of the leading U.S. experts on finance.

Hira, a consumer economy professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, said that financial counseling is limited and very costly in Japan. Therefore, she said, many people do not learn how to handle their finances.

“There is a large number of people having trouble paying their bills in Japan, just like in the United States,” Hira said.

“The managers are here to find out how they can prevent the numbers of debts from increasing and to help people who are already in trouble to get help.”

The managers who attended the June 28-July 5 workshop paid for everything from their airfare to their translators, Hira said.

They also had someone around to look out for their needs 24 hours a day since the businessmen were in a foreign place.

Bankruptcy has only recently become a problem in Japan, Hira said. There has been a significant increase in personal debts and bankruptcies.

The country is trying to get programs to handle the situation before it gets worse.

Hira stressed both social and economic factors leading to overspending and debt in her workshops.

She also talked about the personal factors influencing overextension, like the consumer’s attitudes toward money and their spending behaviors.

Hira said she helped them understand the multi-faceted complex phenomena we experience, not only economic, but also personal factors of finance.

“Social and family factors also influence financial behavior,” she said.

Hira’s goal was to help the managers from the Japanese financial institutions understand their role in helping their clients who are in trouble.