While bond markets continue to take profligate European countries to task, they've allowed Japan -- with the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world at over 200 percent -- to avoid a debt crisis. But Kyle Bass, Founder of Hayman Capital Management, tells BNN that's about to change.
"Once the European nations realize that their only path forward is to restructure their on-balance sheet debts, shortly thereafter we think Japan is likely to have to restructure its debts," he tells BNN. "What's not arguable is the fact that they have the worst on balance sheet sovereign scenario in the world."
"If a Kindergartener were to look at Japan's balance sheet it wouldn't take a genius to see that they have a position that is untenable, they have a position they can't move out of. It's just a matter of time."
Bass believes that Japan's high debt load and shrinking population will eventually take its toll on the country's finances.
"[Bernie] Madoff failed when more people left his scheme than entered his scheme. In Japan we now have more people leaving the workforce than entering the workforce," he says. "Their population peaked a few years ago and they have lost 3.5 million people in about four years. By their own accounting they will lose another 27 million people in the next 40 years."
"When your debts are twenty times your revenue and your interest rates move at all, you have to restructure."