TOKYO, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Japan's corporate bankruptcies rose 24 percent in December from a year earlier to 1,362 cases as the global financial crisis continued to take its toll on the world's second-largest economy, a research firm said on Tuesday.
Total debt involved rose 43.4 percent last month to 632.7 billion yen ($7 billion), Tokyo Shoko said.
A total of 33 listed Japanese firms folded in 2008, the highest tally on records since World War 2, while debt doubled to a six-year high of 12.3 trillion yen due in large part to the failure of the Japanese units of investment bank Lehman Brothers.
In December, apartment builder Dia Kensetsu Co was among the three listed companies to file for bankruptcy protection.
Real estate firms accounted for 16, or about half, of all listed failures in 2008, reflecting a sharp downturn in the apartment market and tighter credit conditions with banks hurt by the subprime loan crisis and much of the rich world in recession. (Reporting by Nathan Layne)