Reply #6: Japan will be facing a dire situation.

[SlipperySlope]

Japan will indeed be facing a dire situation. It is primarily a matter of demographics.

Forget about their debt, forget about their savings, forget about their national pension plan. It boils down to a simple allocation of resources.

Unless they can do something quickly about their birthrate, or unless they plan on opening up to widespread immigration, by 2050 it looks like there will be *more* Japanese elderly then their are Japanese workers.

Savings and debts are just means of accounting here. The real problem is how they will handle the pain of allocating the goods and services produced by X workers among a population of 2X.