Prime Minister Shinzo Abe evokes the late Margaret Thatcher as he repeats "there is no alternative" to his platform of economic change. One of the byproducts: prospects for a Thatcher-type division of wealth.
Tomoko Kawamura, 33, a pharmaceutical industry worker in Tokyo, bought a Louis Garneau bicycle costing about ¥50,000 and a MacBook Air laptop with proceeds from stock investments this year. She owns a one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo's well-heeled Meguro district. In Ehime Prefecture, 800 km to the southwest, Miyoko Yamazaki, 81, is struggling to cover the rising cost of gasoline for her regular hospital trips.
"Prices are going up, making our lives tougher," said Yamazaki, a retired taxi driver who doesn't hold stocks or property. "I don't really feel that the economy is booming." In a restaurant on the 20th floor of a building with views over central Tokyo, Kawamura tells it differently: "I'm enjoying the benefits of 'Abenomics.' "