Strong data suggests Japanese consumers are regaining confidence after a decade of worrying about job cuts and shrinking salaries, but economists have mixed views on whether they will keep shopping.
Government data today showed that overall household spending in April rose 5.7 per cent from March and was 4.6 per cent higher than the same month a year earlier, backing up views that there is a healthy recovery in personal spending.
But most economists said although personal spending in recent months had been stronger than expected, they did not believe it was enough to overtake exports and manufacturing as the main pillar of recovery in the world's second-biggest economy.
The unemployment rate was 4.7 per cent in April, unchanged from March and down from a record high 5.5 per cent hit in January 2003.
But analysts said the jobless rate may be being artificially kept down by the replacement of full-time employees by temporary and part-time hires, and by an increasing number of people giving up their attempts to find a job.
