By defining “real liabilities” as government debt held outside the Bank of Japan, this essay demonstrates that Japan’s fiscal consolidation has already been achieved.
It exposes decades of misleading “national debt crisis” narratives and urges readers to understand and share the facts.

March 7, 2017
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Let us define “real liabilities” as government debt that carries repayment and interest obligations, namely government bonds held by entities other than the Bank of Japan.
It is true that the ratio of total central government debt to GDP has continued to rise.
In 2015, the ratio of total central government debt to GDP reached 200 percent, prompting the Ministry of Finance to have the media and its affiliated scholars and commentators proclaim, “National debt exceeds twice GDP. At this rate we will collapse. Raise taxes. Tighten fiscal policy,” thereby deploying propaganda.
However, when the government and the Bank of Japan are viewed in an integrated manner and the debt-to-GDP ratio is calculated based on real liabilities excluding the portion held by the Bank of Japan, it has been declining since 2013.
In other words, fiscal consolidation has already been achieved.
Through the Bank of Japan’s quantitative easing policy, Japan has already achieved fiscal soundness.
Nevertheless, foolish bureaucrats, politicians, scholars, commentators, and economists who have spent decades shouting that “Japan will collapse due to national debt” refuse to acknowledge this simple fact.
When the Bank of Japan purchases government bonds, the government’s liabilities effectively disappear.
By averting their eyes from this “absolute truth,” lying to the public, concealing the fact that Japan has achieved fiscal consolidation, and continuing day after day the campaign that “Japan will collapse due to national debt,” they persist in deception.
I have no patience for this.
Because they have lied for decades, they likely cannot now bring themselves to say, “In fact, the probability of Japan’s fiscal collapse is zero, and fiscal consolidation has already been achieved.”
Incidentally, media outlets heavily influenced by the Ministry of Finance never report the fact that “because Japan’s government debt is 100 percent denominated in yen, when the Bank of Japan purchases government bonds, the debt effectively disappears.”
I myself have repeatedly encountered the same treatment on recorded television programs, where that very portion is edited out.
Therefore, I continue what amounts to a form of harassment toward the Ministry of Finance by revealing the facts on live broadcasts.
I hope readers will also learn the facts and spread them to those around them.
Our country has already achieved fiscal soundness.