Japan Breaks The ‘Debt Causes Inflation’ Narrative

RIA · Sep 23, 2026

A dollar today buys nearly twice as many Japanese yen as it did fifteen years ago. Crude oil, in yen terms, is up roughly 70% year to date. Food prices are similarly elevated. Japan imports most of the energy and much of the food it consumes, paying for it in dollars that keep getting more expensive. Those facts alone should lead us to conclude Japan has an inflation problem.   As if those factors weren’t enough, add their debt overhang, with the narrative that mounting government debt is inflationary. If that logic holds in the US, it should apply with even more force in Japan, where…