How Japan Invented Modern Debt and Changed Finance Forever | The 1980s Bubble That Broke Economics

How Japan Invented Modern Debt and Changed Finance Forever | The 1980s Bubble That Broke Economics

In 1989, Tokyo’s Imperial Palace was worth more than all of California. That impossible valuation was just the beginning. This is the untold story of how Japan’s response to its bubble crash invented the financial playbook every country now uses: unlimited quantitative easing, permanent zero interest rates, and debt that never gets repaid.
For 35 years, Japan has run the world’s longest economic experiment, proving you can avoid financial collapse through central bank intervention—but at a cost nobody talks about. Lost generations. Zombie companies. Stagnant wages. An economy that functions but never grows.
When the 2008 financial crisis hit, the Federal Reserve copied Japan’s homework. The European Central Bank followed. Now the entire developed world runs on the same system: massive debt monetized by central banks, keeping interest rates at zero, and hoping something changes.
This documentary reveals the warnings that were ignored, the decisions that trapped an entire nation in permanent stagnation, and why every major economy has chosen to follow the same path. From the Plaza Accord of 1985 to quantitative easing programs that reshaped global finance, we trace how one country’s bubble burst created the template for modern monetary policy.
The data is real. The consequences are still unfolding. And what Japan discovered about debt might be the most important economic lesson of our time—even if it’s the wrong lesson.
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION:

Bank of Japan policy documents and historical archives
Ministry of Finance economic reports from the 1980s-1990s bubble period
Academic research by Ricardo Caballero, Takeo Hoshi, and Anil Kashyap on zombie companies
Richard Koo’s balance sheet recession framework
Historical data on the Nikkei index and Tokyo real estate valuations
Federal Reserve and ECB quantitative easing programs post-2008
OECD data on Japanese productivity, wages, and demographics
IMF reports on government debt and central bank balance sheets globally

HASHTAGS:
#JapanEconomy #DebtCrisis #QuantitativeEasing

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