This suggests that the simultaneous progress of these interacting developments has contributed to the sustained operation of a virtuous cycle in Japan's economy. 10  The positive output gap has been maintained as labor shortages continue amid a growing elderly population and a declining working-age population, coupled with the expansion of demand induced by monetary and fiscal policies.
Among their restructuring efforts is a reduction of the number of offices at which checks are processed from forty-five as of 2003 to twenty-three by early 2006. As the check market continues to shrink beyond 2006, the number of check processing centers will almost certainly decrease further.