TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japan's GDP fell 4 percent last quarter, the fastest pace on record, the government said on Wednesday.

The January-March quarter for Japan was 15.4 percent lower than the same time period last year, according to figures released by the Cabinet Office. Exports fell 26 percent on quarter, while imports were down 15 percent.

The GDP slide in the world's second-largest economy is the greatest drop among the world's leading economies. By comparison, GDP in the United States fell 6.1 percent on an annual basis.

This was the fourth straight quarter the Japanese economy contracted. Analysts say the drop reflects cuts in domestic spending with job cuts, factory closings and less capital spending as a result of spiraling sales abroad.

The news punctuates a month of poor economic news out of Japan in recent weeks. Panasonic, one of the world's largest makers of electronic devices, announced it lost nearly $4 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31. Hitachi lost $8 billion in the fiscal year, with consolidated revenues down 11 percent from last year, the largest loss ever recorded by a Japanese manufacturer.

NEC Corporation lost $3 billion in the past fiscal year, down nearly 11.5 percent from last year. Meanwhile, Nissan lost $2.3 billion for the year.Sony Corp. announced net losses of $1 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, finishing a year in the red for the first time in 14 years.

source:http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/05/19/japan.record.gdp/index.html

Japan's debt to GDP ratio was 170%.

holy$hit..

I think it's mostly borrowed from private citizens though, through their postal savings system. I doubt Japan has much foreign debt, but correct me if I'm wrong.

This is right. Japan has rarely ever posted a trade deficit with other countries (usually they have a very large surplus), and have very litttle debt abroad. The problem started after the economic bubble burst at the end of the 80's - the gov't had to prop the economy up with pork barrel projects, namely construction (like building roads to nowhere, tunnels through mountains that nobody uses etc.) causing the public debt to go through the roof. It's not actually borrowed from the postal savings though, as far as I know (edit: apparently it holds about 1/5th of govt's debt in form of bonds) -- it's been undergoing privatization over the past few years and is the largest wealth fund in existence (around $2 trillion I think).

Anyway, 4% drop this year is killer... they'll get through it since most companies have hoarded tons of cash over the years and the banks were not exposed much to the US subprime mortgage market. But it hurts for the average joe getting laid off by massive job cuts across the board. Hopefully it will get better soon.