Capital spending jumped 7.4 percent in the January-March quarter compared with a year ago to log the sharpest rise in nearly two years, as Japan Inc. beefed up investment ahead of the first consumption tax hike in 17 years.
Business investment by all nonfinancial sectors for such purposes as building plants and introducing new equipment climbed for the fourth straight quarter to ¥12.23 trillion in the period, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
Capital spending, which accounts for around 15 percent of Japan's GDP, grew at its fastest pace since the April-June quarter of 2012, a year after the economy plunged in the aftermath of the March 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.