Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's signature policy, Abenomics, was supposed to solve Japan's problems of deflation and decline. Billions of dollars' worth of stimulus later, the economy is sliding into contraction. (Nikkei photo illustration/Source photo by Aflo)

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MITSURU OBE and ERI SUGIURA, Nikkei staff writers

February 26, 2020 04:00 JST

TOKYO -- Outside Masahisa Noda's secondhand shop in Tokyo's Asakusa district are racks of bargain items, on sale at 30% off; on the glass door is a sign offering a 5% rebate for cashless payments. Inside, surrounded by kimonos and obis stacked neatly on shelves, Noda is gloomy about the future. A hike in the consumption tax last fall hit his sales hard, and he sees little prospect of a recovery.