This phrase amazed me - does it sound weird only to non-native speaker?
Japanese households are voracious savers and hold much of Japan’s outstanding debt
If that is not enough:
Japan’s problem has long been that its households are unwilling to spend.
You know there’s one thing that’s really sickening of modern mainstream economics and that’s their “ethics”. Parents have taught their children to save and don’t waste ever since the dawn of civilization. I am pretty sure even our hunter-gatherer forefathers told their sons and daughters to save some dried meat and roots “just in case”. Our parents told us to save to buy that bicycle. Even citizens of the then USSR put money aside to buy a car. Call it accumulation of capital if you will: it has always been one of the cornerstones of civilization. Modern mainstream economics (or “phony capitalism” as I call it) maintain all of the long standing rules do not apply anymore. Gold is a “barbarous relic”. Deficits “just don’t matter”. Saving “is a big problem”. Unbrindled spending “is the only way to stimulate the economy”. Do these sound like sound economic principles or the ramblings of madmen? I am pretty sure someone more learned than me will provide a more satisfying explanation but I think this insanity resulted from the illusion of being able to reconciliate the tenets of Socialism with the prosperity only real capitalism can provide. No need for saving or “capital accumulation” because the central bank will provide capitalization free of charge. No need to think about the future because the State will provide. In this lay the irresistible appeal of the present economic model. And may God help us all.