Japan's economy makes steady progress.

Japan is managing to hold onto its hard-won recovery, and Japanese consumers are responsible for the staying power.

Agence France-Press (AFP) reported the official growth figures in a dispatch on June 13, 2005 from Tokyo revealing that Japan's GDP grew 1.2 percent in the first quarter 2005 compared with the final quarter of 2004. The contribution of private consumption to that growth was 0.6 percent - exactly half.

AFP sourced information from the Japanese Cabinet Office, which included the fact that the first quarter growth rate was the highest in a year.

The economy was still plagued by slowing exports, but private consumption and improvements in job prospects for Japanese workers made up for any penalty lower exports exacted on GDP growth.

Improved industrial output of 0.3 percent also helped keep Japan's economy moving forward. The comparison was against industrial output for the same period a year earlier.