Japan’s economy is back to where it started

Having emerged from parliamentary elections on July 10 with a solid majority in the upper house, Japan’s ruling party can turn its attention back to the country’s ailing economy. Liberal Democratic Party officials left monetary policy off their campaign agenda and delayed an unpopular tax hike to secure voters’ support. Now that they have it, Japan’s leaders will forge ahead with a similarly disliked stimulus program intended to increase inflation and weaken the yen.

But the stimulus program, like the rest of the Japanese prime minister’s much-maligned “Abenomics” strategy for stimulating growth, will likely be undermined by tremors in the global economy. Perhaps the most destabilizing of them all will be the United Kingdom’s recent decision to leave the European Union, which stands to undo what little progress Japan has made in getting its economy back on track.