Japan, more than many other developed countries, needs everything to go right for its economy to grow, the International New York Times reported. Its population and work force are shrinking. Once-big industries like consumer electronics are retrenching under pressure from lower-cost rivals. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won power three years ago on a promise to accelerate Japan’s economic metabolism, but despite some notable successes — joblessness is low and many large companies are earning record profits — a broad increase in growth and incomes remains elusive.

Japan has slid back into recession for the fifth time in seven years amid uncertainty about the state of the global economy, putting policymakers under growing pressure to deploy new stimulus measures to support a fragile recovery, The Guardian reported. The world’s third-largest economy shrank an annualised 0.8% in July-September, more than a market forecast for a 0.2% contraction, government data showed on Monday. That followed a revised 0.7% contraction in the previous quarter, fulfilling the technical definition of a recession which is two back-to-back quarterly contractions.

Japan’s central bank said on Friday that the economic outlook was worsening, but its governor said that the stimulus measures already in place, while slow to take effect, were enough for now. Even with the benchmark interest rate at virtually zero and the bank already buying up trillions of yen of government debt, some economists had expected the bank to ratchet up its efforts in response to a softening Japanese economy. But the Bank of Japan’s rate-setting board voted 8 to 1 to leave its monetary program unchanged.

Shares of Daiichi Chuo KK, a Japanese shipping line, were halted from trading in Tokyo after the Nikkei newspaper reported the company may seek bankruptcy protection as early as Tuesday. The company’s liabilities may be about 120 billion yen ($1 billion), the newspaper reported. The Tokyo-based company, which mainly does tramp services carrying bulk cargoes such as iron core, coal and grains, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the Nikkei report. Shares of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., the largest shareholder of Daiichi Chuo, slumped as much as 7.4 percent after the report.

Shinzo Abe has vowed to boost the size of Japan’s economy from Y491tn to Y600tn and said his programme of reforms was entering a new, second stage, the Financial Times reported. The Japanese prime minister was speaking after his Liberal Democratic party elected him, unopposed, to a second three-year term as its leader, making him one of the few postwar premiers to head a durable government.

Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Games will be the first of a leaner type of competition that will limit spending on big-ticket venues to avoid alienating the public, Chief Executive Officer Toshiro Muto said, two months after debt-ridden Japan canceled plans for a futuristic main stadium, Bloomberg News reported. The International Olympic Committee last year set out a new agenda that favors existing venues over purpose-built stadiums, as concerns mount in potential host countries over the burden of holding the event.

Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday lowered Japan’s sovereign debt rating one notch, in the latest sign of concern about Japan’s economic prospects nearly three years after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took power, The Wall Street Journal reported. S&P said it was lowering the rating to A-plus from AA-minus because weak economic growth makes it less likely that the government can quickly improve the nation’s fiscal health.

Japan should consider an extra fiscal stimulus of Y2tn ($84bn) this autumn, the country’s economy minister has said, as fears grow that a Chinese slowdown will hit growth across Asia. In an interview with foreign reporters, Akira Amari said Japan’s tax revenues had come in Y4tn higher than budgeted, and that the question was how to make use of the extra funds. “The ministry of finance would like to use all of the money to speed fiscal consolidation,” said Mr Amari, one of the most senior figures in the administration of Shinzo Abe, prime minister.

Toshiba again delayed announcing its annual financial results on Monday, as new accounting errors prevented the company from drawing a line under Japan’s worst corporate scandal in four years, the Irish Times reported. Toshiba, which was scheduled to post its earnings for the business year ended in March, said the newly discovered problems included incorrect impairment charges on fixed assets at several subsidiaries and improperly timed booking of loss provisions at a US subsidiary.

Japan’s consumer inflation ground to a halt for the first time in more than two years and household spending unexpectedly fell in July, increasing pressure on policy makers to offer fresh fiscal and monetary support to underpin a fragile recovery. The gloomy data, coupled with soft exports that were blamed on China’s slowdown, reinforces the dominant market view that any rebound in Japan’s growth after the contraction from April to June will be modest.