2  BIS Review 132/2009  II. Japan's economic developments  I would now like to turn to Japan's economic developments. In recent years, the Japanese economy greatly depended on growth in overseas economies. Specifically, the driving force behind Japan's longest period of post-war economic expansion, which continued until the recent financial crisis emerged, was the growth in exports.
Meanwhile, private consumption remained weak due to the change in the consumption structure associated with the further aging of the population, the low growth in domestic employment reflecting the transfer of production bases overseas, and the ensuing sluggish growth in household income.