Japan's actual household consumption has declined year-on-year for three consecutive months.

Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced its investigation results on the 7th, showing that inflation has remained persistently high, squeezing people’s real disposable income. This year in February, Japan’s real household consumption spending fell year over year for the third consecutive month.
Data show that in February, Japan’s average monthly consumption spending for households with two or more people was 289.4k yen (about 159 yen per $1). Compared with the same period last year, it decreased by 0.4%; after excluding price factors, real terms fell by 1.8% year over year. Real household consumption has declined year over year for 3 consecutive months since December last year.
In terms of actual spending, among the ten main categories of consumption, the largest spending item—food—saw consumption spending decline by 0.5% year over year. Spending on transportation and communications fell by 5.9% year over year, education spending fell by 28.2%, and spending on other miscellaneous fees also declined year over year. At the same time, due to increases in home prices and rents and rising costs of home repairs, spending on housing rose by 12.1% year over year. In addition, spending in categories such as furniture and home goods, clothing, entertainment, and medical care and healthcare also increased year over year.
Yukihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Japan’s Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, said that judging from the report, people’s awareness of cutting back spending has expanded from the food sector to the education sector, “and the actual decline in personal consumption may be even larger than the figures released.” (Xinhua News Agency)