How much money does Japan owe?

[Mikawa Ossan]

http://www.kh-web.org/fin/

Click the above link to see how much money the Japanese government owes in bonds. (Sorry, it's in Japanese only!)

The ironic part of it is that technically Japanese law does not allow for deficit spending. Unfortunately, that law has been ignored for a long time now. I'll try to get a link to that law if I can find it on-line.

[theAlphaDuck]

i heard some time ago that Japan Has a National Debt of around 94% GDP

[Mikawa Ossan]

I found the law:

第四条

1. 国の歳出は、公債又は借入金以外の歳入を以て、その財 源としなければならない。但し、公共事業費、出資金及 び貸付金の財源については、国会の議決を経た金額の範 囲内で、公債を発行し又は借入金をなすことができる。

It can be found here:
http://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%B2%A1%E6%94%BF%E6%B3%95#16

[pipokun]

http://www.tek.co.jp/p/debt_time.html
(Sorry, it's also in Japanese only!)

The Mikawa Ossan's link does not take the financial asset of the public sector and/or private sector into account.
And it is lucky that the creditor of the horrible debt increasing by second is most sheepish Japanese, not other countries.

I don't know what would happen if a real nationalist claimed, "Strong Yen is a Japan's vital national interest, and let's change the US bond we have into Euro or Chinese Yuan".