This fall, while many consumers in the West sheltered in place, people in Japan were traveling, eating out and going to movies. One film, “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train,” set a domestic box-office record, outpacing the former champion in a few short months. Japan’s unemployment rate stood at just 2.9 percent by the end of December versus 2.1 percent at the same time the year before. On Monday morning, the Nikkei hit 30,000 for the first time since Japan’s economic bubble burst 30 years ago. Still, the past two quarters of growth did not make up for the damage wreaked by the pandemic.

Source: New York Times February 15, 2021 00:22 UTC