Moody's Investors Service Inc. on Friday dealt a long-expected blow to Japan's credit rating, lowering it two notches to A2. The world's second largest economy and largest creditor nation is now in the same league as Cyprus, Greece and Israel.
The nation's credit rating has now sunk to three notches beneath that of Italy, a fellow Group of Seven nation, and is five notches below the U.S.-based private rating firm's highest triple-A rating.
"Japan's general government indebtedness, however measured, will approach levels unprecedented in the postwar era in the developed world," Moody's said, pointing out that Japan is "entering uncharted territory."