Shabu shabu is a simple but delicious Japanese dish in which translucently thin slices of beef are dipped into a boiling broth of vegetables and tofu. A few seconds will do; just enough for the meat to turn pinky-grey.

In Japanese finance shabu shabu is the enduring symbol of the mid-1990s banking crisis. It was at a shabu shabu restaurant in Shinjuku – staffed by mini-skirted waitresses sans underwear – that top Japanese bankers regularly entertained the ministry officials who were supposed to be supervising them. The entertainment fulfilled its purpose. The men from the ministry turned a blind eye to Japan’s deepening bad loan crisis until 1997, when banks began to implode and the whole system teetered on the brink of failure.

Numerous lessons have been...