NEWS & EVENTS

On April 9th, 2020 the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies and Dr. William Brooks hosted Ms. Eri Sato, a Visiting Scholar of the Reischauer Center, through a Zoom Webinar for a comparison of the debt management policies of Japan and the U.S.

She discussed how Japan’s approach to debt management policy is centered around implementing smooth issuance’s of government bonds and minimizing medium to long term financing costs, whereas the United States approach is trying to fund the government at the least cost to taxpayers over time. For both countries, limiting future debt is a major issue that offers no easy solutions, as both countries have aging populations that increasingly rely on social security and health expenditures. After explaining government initiatives that work to reduce the outstanding amount of debt, Ms. Sato fielded questions from the audience about the politicization of debt, the importance of the Yen and Dollar in international finance, and rules regarding debt management policies in the two countries.