Though spring has been said to be arriving, the warmth hasn’t fully come yet. On a recent walk, I didn’t even need my down jacket—just a leather jacket was enough. Yet, as I took in the mild weather, my mind kept drifting back to news about Japan’s economic challenges. It made me wonder: are we really becoming poorer as a nation?
The other day, I read that a U.S. Federal Court ruled former President Trump’s tariff policy was beyond the scope of presidential authority. How this decision will affect Japan is still unclear, but it seems inevitable that we will push forward with massive investments—perhaps as much as ¥80 trillion—to respond to global economic shifts.
Last night, I saw a report stating that the real value of the yen has fallen to one-third of its peak. That was discouraging to hear. When the currency weakens, the cost of imports rises, squeezing everyday life. At the same time, individual assets—once thought to be enough to cover the nation’s debt—are also losing value in real terms. The thought that we might be “stripped even further” in an already difficult situation brought a quiet sadness.
For a long time, I believed Japan was still a wealthy country. But when I consider the lived experience of ordinary people—the hidden inflation, the pressures on savings and investment—it feels like that assumption may no longer hold.
Is Japan truly becoming poorer? Or are we simply confronting deeper structural challenges that we have ignored for too long?
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