The country's economy showed signs of "picking up," the government said Thursday, maintaining its assessment for a second consecutive month.
"The Japanese economy is still in a severe situation due to the novel coronavirus, but it is showing movements of picking up recently," the Cabinet Office said in its monthly report for August.
After assessing that the country's economy was "getting worse rapidly in an extremely severe situation" in April, with the government declaring a state of emergency over the pandemic, its evaluation was upgraded in June and July as the country slowly reopened following the lifting of the emergency in May.