Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bites his lips during a press conference at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 21, 2014. (Photo: Xinhua/Stringer)
According to Japan's Cabinet Office, the country's economy shrank at an annualised rate of 1.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, bigger than experts' forecast of 1.2 percent decline.
After two-quarters' consecutive growth, the Japanese economy went down again with falling confidence and lower consumption. Together with the surging currency yen and the plunging stock market, a question comes: is it the end of "Abenomics" in Japan?
Abenomics, advocated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the 2012 general election, is a package of economic policies based on the theory of "three arrows" of fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms. But now the strategy has been widely doubted by the public and worldwide media.
The AFP pointed out that the economic downturn could deal a "near fatal blow" to Abe's easy money policies. "The risk is not that Japan faces an imminent financial crisis or that the Abe administration could collapse, but rather that the government's economic programme simply fails to achieve its goals," AFP quoted political risk analyst Tobias Harris as saying.
It considered that the Abe's plan appeared to bear fruit at first, but "sustained growth in the economy has been elusive and Abe's efforts to overhaul the economy have been widely criticised as half-hearted."
Also the BBC news commented that there has been a lot of "hyperbole" surrounding the Abenomics project. "The Bank of Japan's vast money printing project has been described as a money-spewing bazooka.
