Japan's economic recovery will pick up pace

Significance

COVID-19 is spreading at the fastest rate since the pandemic began, exceeding 20,000 new daily cases for the first time this month. The government has extended emergency measures into September.

Impacts

• Business expansion, on hold for more than a year, is showing signs of life as machinery sales rebound.
• Semiconductor and other parts shortages will hold back expansion in the short run, but their effects will diminish over the coming year.
• Economic recovery and successful mass vaccination come too late for the unpopular Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who will soon be replaced.