Eli5: How can some country have trillions of dollar in debt like Japan but still functional without any consequences?

Question

Eli5: How can some country have trillions of dollar in debt like Japan but still functional without any consequences?

In: 101

Answer 1

Their debt is at very low interest rates, so they don’t have to pay much interest each year relative to the entire government budget. The problem isn’t the debt per se, it’s that their economy isn’t growing, so their government budget doesn’t grow either