Indeed, according to the results of the November 1996 “TANKAN -- Short-Term Economic Survey of Enterprises in Japan,” business fixed investment for the smaller firms, which had been slow to improve, is expected to show a year-to-year increase in fiscal 1996 for the first time in five years.
Growth of personal consumption, the other mainstay of private demand, leveled off at one time in summer 1996, but resumed later in autumn, especially in consumer durables such as automobiles. The contributing factor to the moderate but steady recovery in personal consumption has been the improved income reflecting the favorable changes in employment conditions and wages that followed the increase in production.