Japan has gone ahead with the scheduled consumption tax increase that many analysts feared would jeopardize its long awaited recovery, but Prime Minster Shinzo Abe also announced a ¥5 trillion surplus to counteract the effects of the tax hike. Although they generally think the tax increase should have been postponed, Societe Generale analysts Takuji Aida and Kiyoko Katahira estimate that the stimulus will be enough to stop Japan from falling back into a recession. Japan’s consumption tax increase Even though the consumption tax increase has been in the works for a long time, it goes against the ‘Abenomics’ anti-deflationary policies…