The economy fell into deflation amid the successive collapse of major financial institutions in the late 1990s. Thereafter, except for some periods when commodity prices surged, the CPI inflation rate remained in negative territory for about 15 years (Chart 1). Why did Japan's economy fall into deflation and face difficulty in getting out of it for a long time?
These surveys have evolved over time with periodic refinements. Let me give you some perspective on these surveys. Table 1 Survey-based Inflation Expectations  First, the Reserve Bank has been conducting a survey of inflation expectations of households since September 2005 to get a measure of the public pulse on inflation.