Economic Japanese: 景気, 物価, 賃金, 投資, 消費

Core examples: 景気, 物価, 賃金, 投資, 消費, 円安, 金利, 雇用, 成長率, 上昇する, 減速する.

Economic Japanese turns daily life into indicators

A news sentence says:

物価の上昇が続く一方、賃金の伸びは鈍く、個人消費は減速している。

The words are not exotic. But the sentence belongs to a specific economic way of seeing the world. Prices rise. Wages grow slowly. Consumption slows. These are not just everyday experiences; they are indicators.

Japanese economic writing relies on compact kango nouns and trend verbs:

景気 物価 賃金 投資 消費 上昇する 減速する

The key principle is:

Economic Japanese organizes life into indicators, actors, trends, and policy responses.

A learner must know not only the word meaning but which layer of the economy the word belongs to.

景気: the overall condition of the economy

景気

means business conditions, economic climate, or the state of the economy.

Common phrases:

景気が良い the economy is good

景気が悪い the economy is bad

景気回復 economic recovery

景気後退 economic recession/downturn

景気判断 economic assessment

景気 can refer to broad macroeconomic conditions, but it is also used in everyday talk:

最近、景気どう？ How’s business/the economy lately?

Learner action: treat 景気 as economic atmosphere, not one specific metric.

物価: prices as a social pressure

物価

means commodity prices or overall prices.

Examples:

物価が上がる prices rise

物価高 high prices/inflationary pressure

物価上昇 price increases/inflation

物価 connects macroeconomics to household life. In news, 物価高 often appears with 家計, household finances, and 消費, consumption.

Learner action: when reading 物価, ask who feels the impact: households, companies, government, central bank?

賃金: wages

賃金

means wages.

Common phrases:

賃金が上がる wages rise

賃上げ wage increase

最低賃金 minimum wage

実質賃金 real wages

賃金 appears in labor, policy, inflation, and company news. It often connects to 物価: if prices rise faster than wages, households feel squeezed.

Learner action: distinguish nominal wage increases from real wages when reading advanced news.

投資: investment

投資

means investment.

Examples:

設備投資 capital investment

海外投資 overseas investment

投資家 investor

投資する invest

投資 can refer to corporate investment, financial investment, government investment, or personal investing.

Learner action: identify who is investing and in what.

消費: consumption

消費

means consumption. It often appears in economic reporting.

Examples:

個人消費 private consumption

消費が伸びる consumption grows

消費が落ち込む consumption falls/slumps

消費税 consumption tax

消費 connects consumer behavior to economic growth. It may sound abstract, but it refers to people buying or not buying.

円安 and exchange-rate language

円安

means a weak yen / yen depreciation.

Opposite:

円高 strong yen / yen appreciation

Common phrases:

円安が進む yen depreciation progresses

円安の影響 effects of a weak yen

円安で輸入品が高くなる imports become more expensive due to the weak yen

Exchange-rate vocabulary is common in business news because Japan imports energy and materials and exports goods.

Learner action: connect 円安/円高 to imports, exports, tourism, prices, and corporate profits.

金利: interest rates

金利

means interest rate.

Examples:

金利を上げる raise interest rates

金利を引き下げる lower interest rates

低金利 low interest rates

長期金利 long-term interest rates

金利 appears in central-bank news, housing loans, savings, exchange rates, and investment.

Learner action: identify whether the article concerns policy rates, market rates, loans, or savings.

雇用: employment

雇用

means employment.

Common phrases:

雇用情勢 employment situation

雇用を守る protect employment/jobs

完全失業率 unemployment rate

雇用者数 number of employed persons

雇用 is more formal and institutional than 仕事. It belongs to labor-market reporting and policy.

Trend verbs: 上昇する, 低下する, 減速する

Economic Japanese uses trend verbs constantly.

Examples:

上昇する rise

低下する decline

減速する slow down

拡大する expand

縮小する shrink

回復する recover

悪化する worsen

These verbs turn indicators into movement.

Example:

成長率が減速した。 The growth rate slowed.

物価が上昇した。 Prices rose.

Learner action: build an economic verb deck, not just noun vocabulary.

Example bank walkthrough

景気

Overall economic/business conditions.

Learner action: connect to recovery, recession, assessment.

物価

Prices/inflation pressure.

Learner action: connect to households and central-bank policy.

賃金

Wages.

Learner action: watch for 賃上げ and 実質賃金.

投資

Investment.

Learner action: identify corporate, financial, government, or personal investment.

消費

Consumption.

Learner action: connect to households, retail, and economic growth.

円安

Weak yen.

Learner action: map effects on imports, exports, prices, tourism.

金利

Interest rates.

Learner action: connect to banks, loans, investment, monetary policy.

雇用

Employment.

Learner action: distinguish institutional labor-market vocabulary from everyday work words.

成長率

Growth rate.

Learner action: usually appears with 上昇, 低下, 減速.

上昇する / 減速する

Rise / slow down.

Learner action: trend verbs are essential for economic reading.

Economy-article checklist

When reading economic Japanese:

1. Indicator: price, wage, growth, employment, consumption, investment?
2. Actor: government, company, household, central bank, investor?
3. Trend: rise, fall, recover, worsen, slow, expand?
4. Cause: exchange rate, interest rate, policy, global economy?
5. Effect: household burden, company profit, employment, prices?
6. Time frame: monthly, quarterly, fiscal year, year-on-year?
7. Policy response: rate change, subsidy, wage request, investment plan?
8. Plain paraphrase: What changed, for whom, and why?

Household, corporate, and macro layers

Economic articles often mix layers. Separate them before translating.

Example:

円安で輸入価格が上がり、物価高が家計を圧迫している。

The chain is:

weak yen → import prices rise → prices rise → households are squeezed

A learner who translates each word separately may miss the causal chain.

Common economic collocations

Economic Japanese is highly collocational:

• 景気が回復する / 悪化する
• 物価が上昇する / 高止まりする
• 賃金が伸びる / 賃上げを求める
• 消費が落ち込む / 回復する
• 投資が拡大する / 減少する
• 金利を引き上げる / 引き下げる
• 円安が進む / 一服する

Learn these as phrase units. A noun without its trend verbs is not enough for news comprehension.

Beware English economic shortcuts

景気 is not exactly “economy” in every context. 経済 is the economy as a system; 景気 is the economic/business climate. 物価高 is not simply “inflation” in the technical central-bank sense; it can also mean the lived condition of high prices. 賃金 and 給料 overlap, but 賃金 is more labor/economic-policy-like, while 給料 is more everyday salary/pay.

Good economic reading means choosing the right English only after seeing the domain.

A strong tool for this article would link economic terms to indicators and effects.

Suggested functions:

1. Indicator map: 景気, 物価, 賃金, 消費, 投資, 雇用.
2. Trend verb selector: 上昇, 低下, 減速, 回復, 悪化.
3. Cause/effect arrows: 円安 → import prices → household burden.
4. Headline parser: Extract indicator, actor, trend, cause.
5. Plain Japanese paraphrase: Convert business-news sentence into everyday explanation.
6. Graph label practice: Read chart axes and captions.

Final rule

Economic Japanese is not just hard vocabulary. It is a way of converting social life into indicators and trends.

景気 is the climate. 物価 is prices. 賃金 is wages. 投資 is investment. 消費 is consumption. 円安, 金利, 雇用, and 成長率 connect policy, companies, and households.

Read the indicator, track the movement, then ask who feels the effect.