Japan: Debt at a Glance
Highest debt-to-GDP ratio of any major economy. Over 90% held domestically. Bank of Japan holds ~50% of all JGBs. Debt in trillions of yen.
The total is ¥1,300 trillion, equal to 211% of a year's economic output. Shared equally, every resident's part would be about ¥10,483,871. The central bank is the Bank of Japan; the sovereign credit rating is A+ with a stable outlook.
How the clock works
We start from the latest official debt figure and add the current yearly deficit, spread evenly over every second of the year. Government statistics offices publish debt quarterly, so the clock is an estimate of where the total stands today.
Why government debt matters to you
Governments borrow by selling bonds. The interest they pay competes with other spending and taxes, and large borrowing can push up the yields that mortgage rates and savings rates follow. Debt is not a household debt, though: countries that borrow in their own currency and grow their economies can carry high debt for decades, as Japan shows. What matters most is the trend of debt relative to GDP and the cost of servicing it.
See how interest rates feed into your own borrowing on our live rates page, or work out your own debt with the debt payoff planner.