Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo View Post
It seems that the Japanese government owes most of its debts to Japanese banks (already at the brink of bankruptcy) and big Japanese companies. If the government can't repay its debts, it is very likely that all the big Japanese banks will go have to close, as they only have money on paper.
In other words, the Japanese state has been using ordinary people's savings to create employment, but as they can't repay, it equals to stealing all the nation's savings (and Japanese have one of the highest saving rate in the world).
It also means that all Japanese people would have to give 100% of their income (which means they cannot eat, pay for accommodation, etc.) during almost 2 years to recover the public debts.
these are good observations.. But, since a large part of the debt was taken from the banks (hence, from the savings of common folks), most likely what this means is: a fraction (perhaps significant) of the money people have in their bank accounts cannot be withdrawn right now. If all japanese would want to take out their savings, then the banks would have no choice but to refuse. Anyway, I don't think this is such a big deal because of the huge amounts of savings the japanese gathered through the years.