Ratings agency: Apple less risky than Japan

Standard & Poor’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating one notch to A+, a credit rating lower than Australia’s privately-owned major banks and corporations such as Apple. The agency said the likelihood of an economic recovery had diminished and the Japanese government’s strategy, dubbed “Abenomics” (after the country’s prime minister), will not be able to reverse the deterioration of the past five years. Japanese per capital income has slipped from US$47,000 to US$36,000 in the 2011 to 2014 period and Japan now joins other A+ rated countries such as Ireland, Israel and Slovakia.