The current economic expansion has entered its 58th month without interruption to become the longest post-World War II boom, surpassing the 57-month-long Izanagi boom from November 1965 to July 1970. But it is a boom shadowed by weak consumption attributable to stagnation in personal income. It is an economic expansion that has not produced tangible benefits in the daily lives of most people.
The biggest difference between the Izanagi boom and the current one is that the former occurred when Japan was growing rapidly to catch up with the economies of Western countries while the latter is taking place following the maturation of the Japanese economy. During the Izanagi boom, the economy grew at an annual average rate of 11.5 percent in real terms. By contrast, the average real growth rate of the current economic expansion is only 2.4 percent.
The Cabinet Office's economic report for November, which Ms. Hiroko Ota, the state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, submitted at a meeting of Cabinet ministers, confirmed that the current expansion, which started in February 2002, has set a record for the longest period of uninterrupted growth. It stated that "corporate profits are improving and capital investment is increasing," thus showing that progressive growth in the corporate sector is the locomotive for the boom.