The NYT neglected to mention this fact in this piece talking about Japan’s economy. While the piece noted that Japan’s debt to GDP ratio is close to 250 percent, the highest for any wealthy country, it didn’t point out that the debt service burden is virtually zero.

In fact, because much of Japan’s debt carries a negative nominal interest rate, the I.M.F. projects that its burden will actually be negative as of 2021. This means that people will on net be paying Japan to lend it money so that the debt is a source of revenue.