Plates and bowls of yakitori, sushi and tempura; queues of people waiting for a table under skyscrapers in Otemachi; ranks of salarymen heading to the myriad izakayas and karaoke bars of Shinbashi.

It is all part of the tapestry of office life in Tokyo where to the eye of a newcomer like myself, everything is thriving and busier than in many other major capital cities. But if you step back a little, the picture shifts a little — and for those waiting for the Bank of Japan to finally end its era of ultra-loose monetary policy, it is potentially more interesting.

According to new research from Goldman Sachs, Japan’s strong post-Covid recovery in consumption has “slowed considerably so far in 2023” to levels that are still 4 per cent below the pre-pandemic average.