Japan economy sees worst decline on record

The economy shrank by 7.8 percent in the second quarter of the year, its worst performance on record, as the country reeled from the effects of the pandemic.

It was the third straight quarter of contraction for Japan, where a tax increase, slowing demand from China and a series of natural disasters left the country vulnerable even before the pandemic hit.

“The pandemic’s total impact on the economy up to this point is almost the same as the 2008 financial crisis,” said Michinori Naruse, an economist at the Japan Research Institute. But this time, things “got bad all at once.”