Japanese Government to Sell Gold Coins to Make Up for National Debt

The Japanese government has decided to sell gold coins minted during the end of the 19th century and the 20th century to cover up its financial deficits.

According to the Japanese media, the Japanese Treasury Department decided on the 25th to sell 32,683 gold coins issued during the Meiji period and the Showa. After losing World War II, these coins were kept by the General Headquarter (GHQ) of the Allied forces led by MacArthur. The Japanese government then recovered the coins after the San Francisco Peace Treaty. It is now putting them on sale. The coins were minted from 1870 to 1932.

In particular, 68 “fantastic 200,000-yen gold coins” of 1932 costing more than a million yen, are included among the coins on sale. If all the coins are sold, the Japanese government is expected to earn billions of yen in sale profits.

The Japanese Treasury Department decided to sell all the coins within the year, and it is considering selling them over the internet, too.

According to Treasury statistics on September 25, it was revealed that Japan’s national debt has amounted to a worst-ever record of 729.228 trillion yen (about 7,292 trillion won). As of the end of June, the sum of government debt, borrowing, and guarantees increased 3.7 percent since this March. In terms of national debt per capita, the amount is 5.7 million yen (about 57 million won). The Yomiuri Daily even reported that Japan’s national debt could reach as much as 1,000 trillion yen if “hidden debts” are included.

Japan’s balance of national debts is a record-high 517 trillion yen, showing an increase of 15 trillion yen since the end of this March.

Looking into the content, long-term national bonds with a maturity of more than ten years increased 4.8 trillion yen, and the amount of short-term national bonds with a maturity of less than one year was 1.6 trillion yen. This shows that the Japanese government is issuing long-term bonds when the interest rate is low.

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com