Yesterday and today the business news highlighted a story that Japan was now in a recession.  The media defines a recession as any time a country has two consecutive quarters of falling GDP.    The graph from the Wall Street Journal, seen at the bottom of this post, confirms that Japan’s GDP has shrunk over the last six months.  Based on the extensive negative press coverage Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for early elections.  An important question needs to be asked.  Is Japan really in a recession?  There are three reasons why Japan’s economy is much healthier that the media portrays.   These three reasons strongly suggest to me that Japan is not in recession right now. Continue reading Is Japan Really in a Recession? →