78% of Japanese Say They "Do Not Feel the Economy Has Improved"

【Financial News Tokyo = Correspondent Hye-jin Seo】Eight out of 10 Japanese people do not feel that economic conditions have improved, a survey showed. Although analysts have suggested that Japan’s current economic expansion may have surpassed the longest postwar record, the survey found a considerable gap between how people perceive the economy and macroeconomic indicators.
According to an opinion poll released by Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) on the 15th, 46% of respondents said they had "not really" felt that the economy was improving, while 32% said they had "not felt it at all." In total, 78% said they did not feel any improvement in economic conditions.
By contrast, 2% said they felt the improvement "very strongly," while 13% said they felt it "to some extent." The total share who felt that economic conditions were improving was just 15%.
The survey was conducted amid analysis that Japan’s recent economic expansion may have surpassed the Izanami boom, the longest postwar expansion on record, which lasted 73 months from February 2002 to February 2008.
The Izanami boom was dubbed "a boom without tangible benefits" because corporate earnings improved but wage growth failed to follow.
Regarding Japan’s 10-year government bond yield, which briefly rose above 3% annually for the first time in about 30 years, most respondents believed it would have little impact on their daily lives. Sixty percent said it would have "no particular impact." Twenty percent said it would have "a negative impact," while 8% expected "a positive impact."
More respondents viewed positively the Japanese government’s plan to repurchase 210,000 tons of the reserve rice it released last year, in preparation for a possible rice shortage or surge in demand.
Eleven percent said they viewed the plan "very positively," while 43% viewed it "somewhat positively," bringing the total positive assessment to 54%. Meanwhile, 27% said they did "not view it very positively," and 11% said they did "not view it positively at all," for a combined negative assessment of 38%.
NHK conducted the survey over three days, from the 11th to the 13th, among people aged 18 and older nationwide in Japan using random-digit dialing (RDD). Of the 2,905 people contacted, 1,177 responded, producing a response rate of 41%.

[email protected] Hye-jin Seo Reporter