[gusopol3]

Japan remains the world's biggest creditor nation with some $2.5 trillion (£1.3 trillion) in net foreign assets and a massive $19 trillion pool of domestic savings and household assets, the world's biggest stash of private wealth.

will this bail out the U.S. credit crunch ?

[BGHater]

It might cover the interest.

[JasonC]

Could if they wanted to. If private Japanese investors, e.g. through mutual funds, decided to buy $1 trillion in US stock at the present low level of the dollar, they could have most of the US financial sector. Frankly, for a song. It'd earn them great gobs of cash in the future and fund a lot of happy golfing retirements, and I for one would be all for it.

At present, every housewife in Japan instead keeps a few million yen in physical notes stashed in every hollow object in the house...