Japan Worker Sentiment:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210908/p2g/00m/0bu/070000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Business sentiment among workers with jobs sensitive to economic trends in Japan marked the steepest fall in one and a half years in August as the nation saw record levels of COVID-19 cases, government data showed Wednesday.

The diffusion index of confidence in current conditions compared with three months earlier among "economy watchers," such as taxi drivers and restaurant staff, plunged 13.7 points from July to 34.7, the first drop in three months, according to the Cabinet Office.

The decline was the biggest since a 14.0 point fall recorded in February last year, when coronavirus infections started increasing in the country and the economic outlook began to deteriorate rapidly. The latest benchmark index reading was the lowest since 31.2 logged in January this year.

Ideas:

A 34.7 reading is not so good as workers in sensitive areas recently are always on edge whenever there is an increase in COVID levels.

But maybe that's the way its been the past 18 months or so, ever since the pandemic started and workers started to see a significant drop in customers for whatever area they are in.

Most likely they will continue to be weary or stressed out until there is a significant decrease in the cases and or more people get vaccinated.

But even at around 70% for the first shot, which is where Japan is at, cases still seem to be increasing.

Article: 

A reading below 50 indicates that more respondents reported worsening conditions than improving ones.

From around late July, the number of new daily infections continued to rise across Japan amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant and eventually exceeded 25,000 in mid-August, though cases have started to fall recently.

The government's latest COVID-19 state of emergency now covers 21 of the country's 47 prefectures, having expanded from just Tokyo and the southern island prefecture of Okinawa at the beginning of August.

Ideas:

Even has cases have decreased significantly, most likely customers or people or some people are still waiting to venture out and resume some regular activities that they did before the pandemic.

Of course not everyone is staying inside but most likely there is just enough to keep those in the service areas from feeling good about what is going on.

And it is the service area jobs and companies are really feeling the effects of not going out and resuming their regular activities.

Time will tell exactly how long it will take for consumers to get out and about like they did before the pandemic.

But as long as the new variants keep showing up, that might be enough to keep some people inside and not get out and do things.

Article:

The Cabinet Office polled 2,050 workers for seven days from August 25. Of those, 1,830, or 89.3 percent, responded.

The slump was more noticeable in the household spending-related sector, such as retailers and restaurants, rather than in the corporate and employment-related fields, a government official told reporters, adding that heavy rain across the nation in the reporting month also hit business sentiment.

The office downgraded its assessment for the first time in four months, saying the economy has shown "some weakness in its recovery." In July, it said the economy was "picking up."

Ideas:

Yes, consumer spending related to retailers and restaurants, including hotels and the tourism industry are the areas most effected from the virus situation and of course the heavy rains, as can we suggest related to global warming such as what happened in Shizuoka.

The economy may have begun to "pick up" in July but with the explosion of new cases did hit in late July and August, it most likely effected business sentiment or feeling as they knew consumer spending would decrease again.

The idea that the economy has "some weakness in its recovery" might be more positive sounding than negative sounding as always governments like to be as positive as possible.

Most likely its not so positive for those without a job and maybe no prospects for a job in the future and or the company you worked for or was working for has not plans to rehire laid off workers any time in the future.

Article:

A department store worker in the southern Kanto region near Tokyo was quoted as saying that the number of customers and sales of items such as clothing and groceries were "going into freefall" due to increased COVID-19 cases in the area and extensions of the state of emergency.

The diffusion index gauging business sentiment regarding the coming months was down 4.7 points from July at 43.7, falling for the second straight month.

Ideas:

Yes, most likely, the number of customers was/is in a steep decline as the news keeps reporting more and more cases. 

Perhaps, whether good or bad, for the good of some businesses maybe the news outlets shouldn't mention every five minutes in the news how many new cases there are each day.

As the news is too saturated with the virus situation and some people just keep hearing the same thing over and over and as such they decide its not safe to go out to a restaurants a store, or even a supermarket.

But of course they think they are doing a public service and maybe its needed, but maybe it has become too much for the good of society and even businesses and the economy.

Have a nice day and be safe!