The October-December gross domestic product figures announced Monday, marking the sharpest fall in 35 years, sent shock waves through recession-racked Japan.
But according to one of the nation's most influential economists, darker clouds are on the horizon. The drop reported Monday is only the beginning of the worst, and Japan may see a 10 percent decline in GDP for all of fiscal 2009, Yukio Noguchi, a professor at Waseda University's graduate school of finance, said in an interview with The Japan Times.
He has said this prediction may seem "unbelievable" to many, but nonetheless it is a likely possibility for the export-dependent economy.