BANK of Japan Governor Yasushi Mieno's comments this week show that the authorities' economic assessments have moved closer towards the pessimism of private sector economists and, more importantly, closer to reality.
At the end of the quarterly meeting of BOJ branch managers, Mr Mieno retreated from his position of maintaining that the recovery would start to work through in the second half of the fiscal year, to March 1994.
''Domestic demand is not showing clear signs of a recovery, and it is difficult to put the brakes on the trend of declining exports. Thus, there are numerous reports of uncertainty,'' Mr Mieno said with typical Japanese understatement.
It seems that the economy will not kickstart, despite the panaceas to which the Government has turned, including the three stimulus packages this year, interest rate cuts and income tax cuts now expected.
Indeed, the economy seems to be heading down. Capital investment and personal consumption - which account for 60 per cent of gross national product - are obstinately stagnant.
Bankruptcies are running at more than 1,000 a month, and property values - often used as collateral - are still tumbling, implying more bad debts.