Japan is facing a spending crisis, warns prime minister

In Japan, it looks like time could be running out before the country faces its own fiscal cliff, and the government can't seem to agree on how to avoid it.

The day-to-day functions of Japan's government will seize up unless deadlocked politicians pass a new debt financing bill, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda warned Monday.

Martin Schulz from Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo told the BBC'a Asia Business Report that the government is facing a "very difficult situation".