Oil spike lubricates Japan’s economy

The conventional wisdom is that spikes in crude-oil prices play havoc with heavily resource-poor Japan, which is the world’s third-largest oil guzzler after the United States and China and imports almost all its oil. To be sure, high oil prices remain a potential scourge for the Japanese economy just as they are for other oil-consuming countries.

But oil-price rises have proved to be rather a boon – at least so far – for the world’s second-largest economy. Despite high crude

prices, the Japanese economy has been barreling ahead toward a full-fledged recovery amid rising exports and firm domestic consumption, with the stock market reviving and many corporations earning record profits.

Asia Times