Differences Between Greece and Japan: Japan Borrows in a Currency It Prints

In an article on the decision by Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, to delay a long scheduled increase in its sales tax, the NYT told readers:

"Its [Japan's] debt may be large, but it is almost entirely funded by domestic savers, making a crisis like the one in Greece much less likely."

While it is true that most Japanese debt is held domestically, an even more important difference is that Japan's debt is almost entirely in yen. This means that Japan can never be in the situation Greece fa...