Supported by a policy mix of monetary and fiscal policies that has been sustained over the past seven years, there have been slow but steady structural changes in the economy. These can be largely divided into changes in the industrial structure accompanying globalization, and the establishment of a virtuous cycle stemming from longstanding shortages of labor.
These have resulted in other changes in Japan, such as the increased expectation of a rise in the economy's growth potential owing to the expansion of supply capacity, and an increase in  9  the robustness of the economy to changes in the external environment.