The Bank of Japan on July 11 announced that the Japanese economy is "starting to recover moderately" especially on the strength of increased profits of major companies and improvement of capital investment.
This is the first time since January 2011 that the BOJ has used the word "recovery" in its economic assessment, which the central bank upgraded for the seventh consecutive month.
But one cannot help getting the impression that BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, who is pushing an economic stimulation policy in close cooperation with the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is giving a positive assessment of the economy out of political consideration to help the Abe Cabinet.