A financial disaster of the size implicit in their latest numbers would send huge waves everywhere.
Japan is the largest economy in Asia.
The spending power of its 127 million residents exceeds that of the 1.8 billion inhabitants of East and Southeast Asia. Its stock market is now down 67 percent from 1990. Urban land prices have fallen over 80 percent since their peak, with the greatest percentage drop last year. The value of the currency has eroded. This asset collapse has virtually bankrupted the Japanese financial system and suppressed aggregate demand.