Total student loan debt outstanding

Japanese vending machines retreating from street corners as American student debt climbs to historic highs. Two countries, two completely different trends, on opposite sides of the same line. The Japanese teenager has fewer ways to buy a hot coffee. The American graduate has more reason to want one.

Japan's vending machine fleet shrank from about 5.6 million in 2014 to roughly 4 million today, eroded by demographic shrinkage, fewer convenience stores, and contactless payments displacing the coin-fed format. US student loan debt outstanding grew from about 1.2 to over 1.7 trillion dollars in the same window as enrolment expanded and tuition outpaced inflation. Two unrelated lines on opposite trajectories sharing a window because the same nine years contracted one country's transactional infrastructure and inflated another's debt obligation. Different ledgers.

Some economies are retiring old machines. Others are accumulating new debts. The same calendar holds both.