After more than seven years of growth-sapping deflation, the world's second largest economy recorded rising consumer prices, allowing the central bank in July to end its unorthodox policy of offering virtually free credit.

In November, Japan marked its longest economic expansion since 1945 with 58 straight months of growth.

Many Japanese companies are also reporting record earnings, with Toyota Motor Corp. on track to top ailing General Motors next year as the world's largest automaker.

But for many Japanese, the glowing statistics have brought little cheer to their daily lives.

A March poll found that an overwhelming 81 percent worried about widening inequalities as Japan -- whose post-war motto was "100 million people, all middle class" -- embraces Western-style free-market capitalism.

"The most significant thing about the current recovery is that clearly not everybody is taking part in the whole process. Everybody is suddenly very concerned about the disparities, the poverty issue, the working poor," said Noriko Hama, a macroeconomics professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

The entire nation took part in the rapid growth from the ashes of World War II, leading to a boom in consumer spending, which is strikingly lagging in the current expansion, she said.

"Japanese companies really for the first time have almost no choice but to take part in global competition. They no longer can afford to behave as if they were the public sector: leaving nobody behind, carrying everybody on board," she said.