One other thing I forgot to mention, which to me is the real elephant in the room. The Yen-carry trade was partially responsible for a lot of the property speculation that we saw in the early to mid part of this decade in which Japanese banks and funds loaned yen out to foreign borrowers (hedge funds, mortgage companies) with the aim of getting larger returns than they could within Japan.    Many of these loans have gone sour (vacation properties on the Black Sea come to mind as well as Aussie and Kiwi Mortage lenders loaning to expats the world over with these Yen mortgages, and yet there is not a peep about them in the Japanese news.    The money has to have gone somewhere and the amounts involved must be staggering. The creditors here are in just as deep as any country in the derivatives bubble, yet it seems not to be much cause for alarm.    Yes, I'd say we should be worried about Japan.