Japanese in Iowa to study finance

Members of the Japan Consumer Finance Association are in Ames for a four-day program to study finance. Iowa State University professor Tahira Hira organized the program — the fifth of its kind.. They’re bring in 25 to 27 people to learn about consumer finance, and consumer credit. Hira says they’ll focus on the thinking of consumers. She says they’ll talk about credit behavior, money behavior, borrowing behavior, the studies and models used to look at human behavior in general. Hira says understanding how people handle money is important to preventing problems. She says the more we understand, the more we can come forward with preventative measures. She says we always react when people get into trouble, but they want to understand how to prevent the behavior that causes the problems. Hira says Japan has made progress in helping people with finance problems, but says they can still learn from the U-S. Hira says we are ahead of the world in personal finance research, products, services and laws. The Japanese group will be in Ames from July 4th to the 8th.