The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that no country in the world holds as much debt as Japan. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe reports that even the slightest shift to Japan's low interest rates reverberates well beyond its borders, with the potential to drive up rates globally. The Bank of Japan on Friday loosened its grip on a benchmark government bond, surprising investors everywhere. The move was the latest signal that Japan may revise its long-standing commitment to cheap money. The bank said on Friday it would take a more flexible approach to controlling yields on 10-year government bonds, effectively allowing them to slip above the current ceiling of 0.5 per cent. Many analysts saw Friday's decision as a step toward the eventual abandonment of the bank's bond controls. A likely outcome is that the bank will "gradually reduce" its bond purchases while letting rates rise incrementally, said JPMorgan Japan economist Ayako Fujita. Goldman Sachs Japan economist Naohiko Baba described the decision as "effectively akin to a rate hike." However, he added, officials packaged it in a novel form because they "did not want the market to interpret it as the start of full-blown tightening."