In these circumstances, corporate profits continued to recover primarily among large manufacturing firms, driven in part by a rise in profits of processing industries reflecting the depreciation of the yen and the success of corporate restructuring efforts.
And within a short period of time, output and employment also began to recover. Through most of the 1980s, inflation hovered in a range of 3 to 5%. While the decade as a whole was viewed by many as a time of prosperity and growing optimism, much of this apparent affluence was based on speculative activities focused particularly on the real estate sector.