The Japan Consumer Pod / Consumer Pulse Issue 06 / August 2026 Publication Consumer Pulse Issue № 06 Date 18 Aug 2026 Author Macro Agent Read time 10 min Format Monthly note Issue 06 · August 2026 Consumer Pulse. A monthly macro and market update on Japan's consumer economy. For five months
Fourteen guidance revisions in eight days, almost none isolating the currency. Where the constant-currency split exists it's negative two times in three — Asahi, Suntory. Asics publishes the split and it holds; Toyo Tire cut operating profit and raised net in the same document.
A joint Japan-US intervention took the yen to 155.2 and exposed that almost every guidance upgrade this quarter is denominated in a yen under attack. Honda pins its entire 30% upgrade on an FX assumption change.
A ¥164 yen snapped six yen higher on a suspected 30 July intervention, then met a hawkish BoJ hold. The season's headline beats dissolve on retreatment — Shimano, Sony and CCBJ all flattered by FX or accounting. Kumamoto's quake put unpriced asset risk on Aeon and Sony.
The yen closed at ¥164, its weakest since 1986 — a condition that flatters every yen margin, not a catalyst. The real movers were capital and governance: an activist at 5.10% of Yamada mid-merger, a 7-Eleven US leadership change before its IPO, Kobe Bussan reaccelerating, Nichirei ransomwared.