All nine regions of the country are showing economic improvement due to vigorous personal spending and accelerated corporate output, according to a report by Bank of Japan branch managers who gathered Friday for their quarterly meeting.
Hokkaido, the only region that reported economic stagnancy at the previous meeting, upgraded its assessment, saying the economy is slowly coming back.
"Many company executives in the Kansai region say economic improvement is broadening" to new areas, said Nobuo Inaba, chief of the BOJ's Osaka branch.