The News
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Sunday said Tokyo hoped to advance US trade talks, with the aim of sealing a deal during June’s Group of Seven summit.
Ishiba is under pressure over concerns stemming from Japan’s national debt and the impact of US tariffs, which have spurred borrowing costs to rise.
But Ishiba’s recent assertion that his country’s fiscal situation is “worse than Greece,” was disputed by analysts: Unlike the challenges Athens once faced, Japan’s government debt is mostly held domestically, a Japanese politics newsletter noted, and it remains the world’s largest creditor nation.
“The endless gold bugs and Bitcoin bros salivating over the prospect of an impending Japanese fiscal collapse will be disappointed yet again,” Bloomberg’s Gearoid Reidy wrote.