The economy shrank 3 percent last quarter, the steepest contraction since 2001, as companies and households cut spending and exports fell.
Gross domestic product for the three months that ended on June 30 shrank more than the annualized 2.4 percent initially estimated, the Cabinet Office said Friday. Economists expect the slowdown to continue into next year as the U.S. slowdown spreads to Asia, where Japan ships half its exports.
The next prime minister will have little money to spend on an economy that may be in a recession, because public debt is about 1.8 times the size of GDP. Economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano, one of five candidates to replace Yasuo Fukuda, who resigned this month, said last week that there's "nothing to be done but wait" for export markets to recover.