Why Inflation Is Rocking Japan’s Economy

For three decades, Japan’s prices were largely immovable. Increases were so rare that in 2016 a Japanese company apologized for hiking the cost of a popular ice cream by ten yen—or about 6 cents.

But those days are long gone. The country’s key inflation gauge has remained above the Bank of Japan’s 2% target for 44 consecutive months, and the yen has weakened to levels not seen since the early ‘90s. Steering the country through this crisis is the inaugural challenge of Japan’s new leader, Sanae Takaichi. In this Bloomberg Originals mini-documentary, we look at how Takaichi is addressing this seismic shift in Japan’s economy, and how consumers and businesses are coping with rising costs.