Devil Take The Hindmost by Edward Chancellor (pg. 293)

Acting on the belief that land prices would never fall again, Japanese banks provided loans against the collateral of land rather than cash flows. Towards the end of the 1980s, they increased lending against property, especially to smaller companies. The rising value of land became the engine for the creation of credit in the whole economy. Tochi-hon’i sei, the land standard, had arrived.