I would not suggest using the Japanese bond market as an example: Japanese bonds are pretty much exclusively owned by the BoJ and private Japanese banks, and th

I would not suggest using the Japanese bond market as an example: Japanese bonds are pretty much exclusively owned by the BoJ and private Japanese banks, and they generally do this for mechanistic reasons. Basically everyone who can choose not to buy Japanese bonds is not buying Japanese bonds. US bonds are not currently in the same place because it's hard to figure out who is in a much better position. The US has the guns and the petrodollar (although that is ending), and many other countries are in a more precarious economic and political position (thanks to Russia). However, there is no question that position would be better if the US had half its national debt.