Japan’s public debt has been rising significantly since the 1990s; in recent years it has risen to about 240% in relation to GDP. Contrary to repeated promises, political and bureaucratic attempts at changing the direction of this trend have been ineffective for more than three decades. Therefore, the sustainability of Japan’s public finance is frequently challenged, even more so in the light of the Bank of Japan’s ongoing quantitative easing monetary policy. Although it is true that socio-structural and macroeconomic conditions make the accrual of a public deficit more likely, the political and democratic dimensions of fiscal discipline are gaining more attention at present. Public policy research stresses the existence of systemic loopholes in Japan’s fiscal governance and demonstrates that the legal framework and parliamentary control have proved inadequate in limiting the quest by politicians and bureaucrats for budget maximization. While major OECD countries have made considerable efforts to enhance their fiscal governance by increasing fiscal transparency, establishing independent fiscal institutions (IFIs) and enforcing binding constitutional rules – such as balanced budget amendments, commonly known as »Schuldenbremse« in Germany – steps towards a fiscal reform in Japan’s case are not yet in sight. To explain why Japan’s public finance has deteriorated to this degree (whereas other countries facing comparable social and economic challenges have managed to reduce their reliance on debt), this paper first examines critical aspects of the country’s fiscal governance. Then it moves on to a media analysis of how the debt issue is covered by the mainstream press, namely national television (NHK) and the major newspapers. It will be demonstrated that the topic of public debt tends to be marginalized in media discourse, questioning the public’s issue of awareness and the media’s ability to form a widely supported consensus that could pressure politicians to act and finally take effective measures towards fiscal consolidation. This paper will further illustrate that the shortcomings in fiscal governance are closely linked to the quality of public discourse, thereby underlining that the public deficit ultimately reveals not only Japan’s structural socio-economic challenges but also the fragile state of its democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]