July 2026 Consumer Survey: Index Rises to 34.9

The Consumer Confidence Survey aims to assess consumer sentiment regarding future livelihood conditions and other matters, price expectations, and ownership of major durable consumer goods, thereby obtaining basic information for assessing economic trends. The published results cover the July 2026 survey of households of two or more persons.

In July, consumers became more optimistic than in the previous month about their livelihood, employment, income, and purchases of durable consumer goods. After falling sharply in March 2026, the index bottomed out in April and rose in May, June, and July.

Regarding price expectations, the combined share of respondents expecting prices to rise was 92.8%, down 0.5 points from the previous month. Respondents expecting prices to fall accounted for 2.5%, those expecting no change for 2.9%, and those who did not know for 1.7%.

The survey population comprises approximately 54.11 million households nationwide, excluding households of foreign nationals, students, and residents of institutional facilities. Using three-stage sampling, 8,400 households are selected: 5,376 households of two or more persons and 3,024 single-person households. Survey households remain in the panel for 15 months, with the survey initiated each month for approximately 560 households in each of 15 groups.

The survey is conducted once a month using both postal and online methods. From fiscal 2026 through fiscal 2027, it is commissioned to Survey Research Center Co., Ltd. This survey produced 4,229 valid responses from households of two or more persons, a rate of 78.7%, and 2,300 valid responses from single-person households, a rate of 76.1%.

The July seasonally adjusted values composing the consumer attitude index were 33.1 for overall livelihood, 40.9 for income growth, 40.1 for employment conditions, and 25.6 for willingness to purchase durable consumer goods. The month-on-month changes were increases of 1.1, 0.6, 1.7, and 1.0 points, respectively. Asset value was 46.4, up 1.6 points from the previous month.

The index asks respondents to rate their outlook over the next six months for livelihood conditions, income growth, employment conditions, and willingness to purchase durable consumer goods on a five-point scale. Scores are assigned to the response categories, and the category shares are weighted to calculate the simple average of the four items. Asset value is excluded from the index and treated as a separate sentiment indicator.

The price outlook survey asks respondents how they expect the prices one year ahead of goods they usually purchase to change, using the categories fall, remain unchanged, rise, and do not know. This time, the breakdown for those expecting prices to rise was 10.0% for less than 2%, 30.7% for 2% or more but less than 5%, and 52.1% for 5% or more. The total expecting prices to fall was 2.5%.