For those living in Japan, the news that the Japanese economy is in recession comes as no surprise. After a few years of modest, very modest growth the Japanese economy slowed, stumbled, and has now retracted--but it felt that way all along.
A recession is officially defined as two consecutive quarters of declining economic output, year over year. Japan's economic output fell by 0.9% and 0.1% in the last two quarters, putting it squarely in recession territory.
But it's felt as though Japan's been in recession for years. There's been no excitement in the air, no crazy spending or really extravagant building; the country has felt muted for a long, long time. I'm not lamenting the bursting of the bubble however--it's just that for the average Joe-san, Japan has felt economically asleep at the wheel (which I know it is not) for a long while.
With news of Japan's current recession, I think most people in Japan will share a collective shrug. By the time most recessions are officially detected and announced, they're usually technically over anyway. Not sure if this will be the case here in Japan however--the economic hang overs really drag on in this part of town.
0 comments:
Post a Comment