Japan Shows Resilience to Tax-Rise on Record Confidence Gain

Confidence in Japan’s economic outlook among taxi drivers and restaurant staff and other workers soared by a record in April, indicating the blow from last month’s sales-tax increase may be short-lived.

A gauge of expectations for two to three months ahead rose to 50.3 from 34.7 in March, the biggest jump since the government started compiling data in 2000, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. This contrasts with the survey for current conditions that dropped to 41.6 from 57.9 after the rise in the levy to 8 percent from 5 percent.