''Land of the rising sum: Japan's toxic mountain of debt''

From Globe and Mail

"Less than four years ago, Greek and German credit default swaps were priced at roughly similar levels. Back then, investors did not consider a Greek default very likely – and then the market caught up with economic fundamentals.

In many ways, Japan is starting to look a lot like Greece.

The Asian nation has been adding debt at an accelerating pace over the past decade. In 2001, Japan’s debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 144 per cent. A decade later, it was 212 per cent – meaning that Japan is now far more indebted than Greece was at the worst point of the recent crisis, when Athens’ debt topped out at 165 per cent."

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