If Japan's economy has been pulled teadily out of the slough into which it had fallen for more than a decade, Japan's corporate sector has been doing almost all the pulling. Ever since the recovery that began tentatively in 2003 started to look solid, economists have predicted that households would soon take over the running, by starting to spend again after years of deflation and tightened belts. Yet every prediction of a consumption boom has proved premature, causing some to question the sustainability of the recovery as a whole. In February deflation, which last year had been declared vanquished, even made an unwelcome return.
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