[classicman]

TOKYO -- Just over four years since it clawed its way out of a consumption-sapping cycle of price slides that sucked the vitality out of Asia's biggest economy, Japan is back in deflation, officially at least.

The feeling of deflation deja vu was compound by the nation's central bank response, which amounted to more of the same. The Bank of Japan is keeping the nation awash in corpuscles of cash in the hope that like an over-oxygenated athlete, the Japanese economy might burst into a sprint.

Many are happy to keep it that way -- after all, how many shoppers are going to complain when goods get cheaper? When wages are shrinking and taxation and social welfare costs are ballooning, people will insist on value for money, especially when they have been overpaying for goods and services for years.

The upside is that it will force Japan into the kind of structural change needed to boost productivity that its political leaders dare not suggest.

Their response to the latest bout of deflation from the top has been predictable and disappointing. The spend-our-way-out-of-trouble mantra is again being chanted in the cloisters of power and another government stimulus package to kick-start the domestic economy is on its inevitable way.

The new Democratic Party of Japan seems intent on shifting away from pouring concrete into roads, dams, ports and bridges to shore up the economy in favor of giving the money to consumers through subsidies and benefits, although bickering among ministers about how many billions of dollars it should splurge has delayed the package.

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Wow - is this the future for our bailout? We'll just bail our way out again. How many times has this already been done in Japan now?