S&P warns Japan 'may be closer to downgrade'

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has warned Japan could face a downgrade over its inability to reduce its debt pile.

Although not an official warning, Takahira Ogawa, director of sovereign ratings at S&P in Singapore, said in an interview the country has not made progress in tackling the public debt burden. According to Bloomberg, Ogawa said: "Japan's finances are getting worse and worse every day, every second." Asked if that means he is closer to cutting Japan's rating, he said it "may be right in saying that we are closer to a downgrade. But the deterioration has been gradual so far, and it is not like we are going to move today." A reduction in S&P's AA-rating of the country would be a setbac...