"As of 2022, the Japanese public debt is estimated to be approximately US$12.20 trillion US Dollars (1.4 quadrillion yen), or 266% of GDP, and is the highest of any developed nation."
Also unique in that the public debt is mostly held by citizens or local corporations (92%).
For reference, that figure is ~75% for the US, and between ~75 and 50% for most EU countries. Fun fact, the largest foreign debt holder of the US is...Japan.
* The Nikkei 225 stock market indicator reached a high of about 40k in 1989, but dropped to a quarter with the collapse of that asset bubble, and has not recovered that yet (it just recently hit 30k). This period was known as the "lost decade" [1]
* Japan has had very low (near zero) rates for nearly three decades, more than twice as long as the rest of the world.
* Demographics: the transition to low birth rates, shrinking and ageing population started earlier than most other countries
I believe Nikkei total return, i.e. with dividends reinvested, is higher than in 1989. So even money invested in 1989, if not touched, eventually outperformed cash. But it took a while.
Another example to my sibling comment's one of debt is the stock market. While most of the world that has advanced technology and industry etc. has seen huge gains over the past decades, Japan is still not quite back at the highs they saw in the late 80s - for various demographic and economic reasons that I'm not remotely knowledgable enough to explain.
But see for example the charts (click on "max" to see as far back as possible) on Yahoo Finance for famous indexes of top X companies in each country:
USA (S&P500): Up ~2000% since 1985, technically down ~12% since December but anyone who invested 15+ months ago is still up it's not like a crazy crash
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/
Obviously these are limited to the few hundred biggest companies but offer a good snapshot, and it's a similar story if you look at other European countries etc., and a significant problem for Japan (as well as being a metric/indicator caused by significant problems) that their growth has been so far behind.
Not much any more, but in the 90s and 2000s, having zero, or negative interest rates was a real peculiarity. People couldn't figure out how it could happen or why Japan couldn't fix it. Meanwhile 20 years later we've all been in the same boat.
