[RC_ITR]

I mean that's one interpretation.

Japan's problem was that it's spending did very little to encourage consumption [1]. It was mostly dedicated to high-cost infrastructure projects and other boondoggles that simply did not lead to more economic activity. [2]

That intrinsic lack of demand led to insanely low inflation for a long time, so that Yen-denominated debt consistently grows as a share of their Yen-denominated GDP. [2][3]

In the US, we've grown debt a considerable amount, but the only time we really increase it as a % of GDP is during recession responses (since our 'normal time' debt usually goes to things like private contractors who grow like stock-market businesses and create durable GDP). [4]

Anyway, long story short, the US debt is it's own thing and it's very hard to compare to Japan, since Japan went about it in such a different way.

[1] hhttps://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.CON.PRVT.PP.CD?locat... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/world/asia/06japan.html [3] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FPCPITOTLZGJPN [4]https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=18ZDt