Tokyo - Japan's economy had marked its longest economic expansion since World War 2, according to a government report yesterday.
Japan racked up its 58th month of recovery - nearly five years - starting from January 2002, the cabinet office announced. That surpasses the previous record from October 1965 to July 1970, dubbed Izanagi keiki, named after an ancient god.
The report takes into account a variety of economic factors besides gross domestic product to determine whether the economy is expanding or shrinking.
Still, the cabinet office warned about recent weakness in consumer spending, and downgraded its monthly assessment of the economy for the first time since December 2004.
The government said Japan had emerged from a decade of stagnation and corporate profits were growing, but there were also signs that people were not getting all the perks from the recovery.
The Japanese economy is increasingly global, with firms producing and hiring workers abroad as well as in Japan. That means that some of the benefits of higher corporate profits will not trickle down to ordinary Japanese workers as they are being shared with overseas operations.
The double-digit growth that Japan experienced during the Izanagi era, which coincided with the nation's postwar reconstruction and modernisation, was far more stellar than the growth being marked these days.
The economy grew at an annual pace of 2 percent in the third quarter.
The latest government report said that consumer spending was flat, and warned that surging oil prices posed a danger to economic growth.
It also noted that corporate investments were on the rise and company profits were improving.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe brushed off the less upbeat view on the economy.
"There's no change to the overall trend for a continuing economic recovery," he said. "We do need to watch moves in consumer spending carefully."
The report's cautious view on consumer spending, which makes up more than half of Japan's economy, may influence a decision by the Bank of Japan on when to next raise interest rates. - Sapa-AP