Tokyo, Dec 12: A series of big financial-sector failures made November one of the worst months ever for corporate bankruptcies in Japan, a Japanese credit research firm said on Friday.

Total debts held by bankrupt companies surged 29.8 per cent compared with last November to 2.01 trillion yen ($15.5 billion), the second-highest monthly figure ever, Tokyo Shoko Research said in a report.

The private research firm said the total number of failures -- 1,414 -- was up 5.6 per cent from a year earlier.Although this total was actually down 11.8 per cent from October, debts of bankrupt firms in November more than quadrupled from the 486.96 billion yen recorded in the previous month.

The sharp rise in the debt figure was due mainly to a wave of failures of financial institutions, including Sanyo Securities Co Ltd, the report said.

Tokyo Shoko said it did not include some failures in its survey as it was still not clear whether they would result in defaults.

The failures of Hokkaido Takushoku Bank Ltd, the 10th largest bank in Japan, "Big Four" brokerage Yamaichi Securities Co Ltd and Tokuyo City Bank Ltd were not included, it said.

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