Japan GDP surges in size but chiefly because of accounting changes

Tokyo

WHEN Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced in September 2015 that he was targeting a roughly 100 trillion yen (S$1.2 trillion) - or 20 per cent - increase in the size of the world's third-largest economy by the year 2020, some argued that the target was absurdly over-ambitious, given Japan's snail-like expansion in recent years.

But on Thursday, it appeared that they might have had to eat their words after Japan's Cabinet Office announced that gross domestic product (GDP) leapt in size by 31 trillion yen or by almost 6.5 per cent for the year to March 31, taking it to 532 trillion yen compared with just over 500 trillion yen a year earlier.