Japan’s National Debt Broke Last Year’s Record

Japan’s national debt has hit a new high for a fourth straight year.

The Finance Ministry says government debt stood at ¥1,114.54 trillion, or about $10.45 trillion, at the end of March 2020. That’s an increase of about 104.85 billion dollars from a year earlier. Thus, the national debt more than doubles the size of the country’s gross domestic product. This is the worst indicator among G7 members, which also includes the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, U.S. and France.

The increase primarily stems from the issuance of government bonds to cover growing spending on the aging population such as medical and nursing care costs and pension payments.

The debt consisted of $9.26 trillion in government bonds, about $697.6 billion in financing bills, or short-term government securities, and about $492.4 billion in loans.

Japan is set to issue more bonds this fiscal year to deal with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The government relies on bond issuance to fund the supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, worth about $234.3 billion, in a bid to prevent a plunge in the domestic economy.