Fitch affirms Japan ‘A’ rating affirmed, outlook stable

The US-based Fitch ratings, in its latest report on the Japanese economy, affirmed Japan’s ‘A’ sovereign rating while maintaining a ‘stable’ outlook.

Key Highlights:

Affirmed Japan's long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating (idr) at 'a' with a stable outlook.

A high domestic savings rate and home investor bias contribute to economy's external resilience.

Economy’s intrinsic financial strengths could erode over time in absence of reforms to boost potential growth, address public debt burden.

Japan's ratings balance strengths of the advanced and wealthy economy, with high governance standards and strong public institutions.

Spillovers from trade tensions between US and China are also a risk, as are tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Trade protectionism poses downside risk to the outlook, exemplified by the imposition of a 25% tariff on US imports of steel and aluminum.