Japan economy suffers worse-than-expected contraction of 0.5%

Very surprised exports are down given the yen. And there should be a boost from 3m tourists. Domestic consumption/demand must be very weak which is not all that surprising given falling real wages. Nice one J-govt/BOJ.

geronimo2006Today  04:40 pm JST

Very surprised exports are down given the yen. And there should be a boost from 3m tourists. 

Tourism is only a small part of the economy, 3m tourist shows up in the decimals.

"The BOJ can't ignore these GDP numbers. This is not at all the kind of situation where they can raise interest rates again right away,

so halfway to a recession again,

heres an idea raise interest rates in the hope the yen gets stronger then exports will suffer more losses, companies repatriated profits will shrink, wage increased will disappear. back into the deflationary cycle.

strong economies have strong currencies, Japans economy hasnt been strong in decades

Japan is going down like a flushing toilet. The symbolism is apt

But.........there are so many tourists?!

Tens and thousands of economists have responsibilities in providing the public with explanations why loose monetary policy has no effects or useless. Or are what's useless those tens and thousands of economists?

Its unpopular government which will easily be re-elected whenever the next general election is held.

Abe economics is just a bubble, won't last long !

The BOJ can't ignore these GDP numbers. This is not at all the kind of situation where they can raise interest rates again right away," said Nobuyasu Atago, chief economist at Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute, quoted by Bloomberg

It does not occur to them that near-zero interest rates are part of the problem rather than the solution. I know it's not easy, or rather, it's impossible to extricate themselves from the trap they created with Abenomics. From the start, it was obvious that it was merely kicking the can down the road.

RedemptionToday  06:12 pm JST

Toyota just had best profit ejaculation in its history! Blew the roof.

Yet their stock went down, interestingly

But but, our tourism sector is bringing lots of money...

But but, tourism must first make up for all their loses that were during pandemic before we do anything about our monetary policy...

But but, we must do million more meetings before we change our policies...

Japan's economy suffered a worse-than-expected contraction in the first quarter, official data showed Thursday, in further bad news for its unpopular government.

Japan's economy stunk even worse under a "popular" Abe government, so this is really meaningless.

There hasnt been real growth here for more than a generation.

 Exports dived 5.0 percent, after growing 2.8 percent the previous quarter, while imports fell 3.4 percent.

No brainer here, since just about everything "exported" is manufactured with "imported" materials and when your supply costs more than you can afford to pay to manufacture your product, you no longer have anything to sell.

Of course imports are going to fall, as they are based on the dollar, so outside of essentials not many can afford the increase in costs related to the weaker yen.

well, all prices of foreign goods, that are almost all goods, exploded.

I very seldomly see anyone using a Sony notebook or smartphone lately, it’s all Apple. People like foreign goods but don’t have the money to spend due to inflation.

Successive ruling LDP government, emboldened by an aging, however willing voting public, a youth devoted to a zombie smartphone culture, delinquent to any political affiliations have sleepwalked an economy, aided by a government intent on driving Japan into a monetary and fiscal cul de sac.

Any promise of a third arrow restructuring reforming programme, future focused agenda, a long distant memory.

"Worse than expected" by whom? I think anyone with a brain has been saying this will happen for quite some time.

In late April and early May, the yen briefly rose sharply against the

'Sharply'

No No No

What a load of equine excrement

There hasnt been real growth here for more than a generation.

That's a bit of an exaggeration in my opinion

Then again...How many years are you considering a ' generation ' is anyway ?

Just curious

With all due respect

Falling to the 5th largest economy in the world soon…

The trap the BOJ fell into is now leading Japan into a tourist country like its SE Asian peers. The average salaryman is “pinched” like nobody’s business, imported energy and food is a world of hurt…

The trap is now if they increase interest rates like they did recently, which led to record bankruptcies (not mentioning likely homelessness rise) OR risk the economy getting rekt as consumers have to cut back spending due to higher bills. Vicious cycle…

Best guess is tourist casino gamble on the cards by the BOJ. The right thing to do is increase rates…very difficult as there’s bad consequences either way. Winners and losers…developed country? What civilisation?

The business and political leaders in this country have failed the people. Time to kick the geezers out of power.

Japanese people need to organize and fast. They also need to stop getting distracted by the media dangling the "unruly foreigner" trope in front of them.

Do they want to have difficult conversations about this now or really want to wait fifty years into the future and risk there being desperate conditions and civil unrest? Stop kicking the can down the road.

It’s your own fault. You introduce various sanctions, and then say that imports have fallen.

nikToday  09:30 pm JST

It’s your own fault. You introduce various sanctions, and then say that imports have fallen.

The Imports are irrelevant. It's the Export figures that count.

Still done get it. Wasn’t the Japanese stock market the highest it’s ever been a month or so ago? What gives? Economics always been a mystery! Need some good news for the students, more doom and gloom just ain’t an option!

Well i guess that's going to end all talk about pushing up interest rates then.

Ricky Kaminski13Today  10:02 pm JST

Still done get it. Wasn’t the Japanese stock market the highest it’s ever been a month or so ago? What gives? Economics always been a mystery! Need some good news for the students, more doom and gloom just ain’t an option!

Sadly, the stock market isn't in my shopping basket, or the real economy.

wolfshineToday  09:21 pm JST

They also need to stop getting distracted by the media dangling the "unruly foreigner" trope in front of them. Do they want to have difficult conversations about this now or really want to wait fifty years into the future and risk there being desperate conditions and civil unrest? Stop kicking the can down the road.

Sadly the old men and women in the country, have been kicking it down the road for about 50 years when the demographic time bomb was ticking. Now convenience stores, nursing homes, factories,and farms, can't get the staff, so instead of gradually getting the older and younger population ready for "immigration" they might increase some civil unrest by suddenly having to increase immigration in a shorter, faster period. I think there will be issues in the future. Japan won't be unlike other countries, but they have the advantage of learning from others' mistakes.But will they? We are already seeing some problems in articles printed here.

Look, Yen depreciation is not necessarily helping the economy and high interest rates may not surprise inflation. The old school theory is not working on financial environment nowadays.

Look, Yen depreciation is not necessarily helping the economy and high interest rates may not surprise inflation. The old school theory is not working on financial environment nowadays.

But the bankers and LDP cronies will get together and have a few hundred meetings and stamp some hankos etc and pledge a bit more all the while letting the economy and the Japanese ' ippai jin' get more and more hard up ...

Sad state of affairs tbh .

in further bad news for its unpopular government.

Not to worry.

All Kishida needs to do is spend a lot tax payer's money, to travel around the world for no reason and completely ignore any and all of the problems that are actually happening in Japan.

Then everything will be alright!

He already seems to be doing a really good job of that, so far!

I made enough proposals for a vivid, flourishing economy and their new capitalism. But they just don't listen and stubbornly go into the opposite direction, an accelerating downward spiral. Unbelievable, such an intentional ignorance, but so be it, if they need their own slow learning curve.

Even without weak yen, food and energy basic imports are more expensive. Increasing interest rates to compensate is not going to make them cheaper.

Raise rates to 5% and put a final arrow into the zombie companies that have been sucking the money out of the economy for 30 years.

Just numbers that can change for good in next future..

No drama here..

Cut the whining hate, ladies..

All the over tourism and nothing to show for it.

My Japanese ETFs were crashing a few weeks ago I had to unload them - too many writings on the wall.

Guess that means more single Japanese women flying out to Dubai and Hawaii

You can always export some more cars to Australia so we are not waiting for delivery between 6 months to 2 years.

Japan's numbers are starting to look ominously like those of the UK. A sharp decline in currency leading to high retail inflation. The lack of union power has softened the consequences of that, low interest rates have limited the spread of the economic damage up the food chain into the middle classes, and the 'default' LDP voting reflex might maintain some political stability. But the rest is grim - not enough staff and not enough cash. Japan is on the edge of the spiral of structural decline that the UK has plunged into. This might be the last chance for Japan to sort itself out. But if the US requires it to duplicate American sanctions, tariffs and restrictions, the decline may be inevitable.

Japan should become ,than a important part of the brick +++

The economic future will be bright ...