Over the weekend I had a story about one of Abe’s plans to get the Japanese people investing in riskier assets . NISA, the free savings scheme, isn’t being taken up as well as expected and it adds to other parts of Abenomics that are not performing to expectations.

A Bloomberg Brief report has a detailed analysis of the overall story so far from Japan as we move a year and a half into Shinzo Abe’s masterplan to raise the country’s fortunes.

Bloomberg have asked several scholars and economists to chip in their views on events so far and it’s a pretty mixed bag.

While some see that the BOJ has had a good time of it with forecasts on inflation, and others say the sales tax hike hasn’t derailed the recovery, other note that higher growth potential remains out of reach while households remain pessimistic.

The yen is discussed with the likes of Takatoshi Ito, a member of the panel of the reform of the GPIF who says that he is surprised the yen hasn’t depreciated more but that if it was responsible for driving inflation before it isn’t now we’ve been holding a range.

He says that the yen has “been in a box” at 100-105 and we’ll move up to a 105-110 box towards the end of the year as expectations over US interest rates rise.

You can read the full report here and it is worth a gander

What is striking me of late is the increased scrutiny in Japan and Abenomics. The market is a very impatient animal at the best of times and I’m surprised it has afforded Abe this much time before asking questions. We all knew that Japan’s problems wouldn’t be solved in months but in years, but it’s not going to be long before the market really starts asking questions and that may put a bid in the yen if it doesn’t like the answers.

The next couple of months are key to seeing the overall effects of the tax hike and if they are less than favourable then that might jeopardise the plan to hike it again in October and bring more scrutiny on Abe & Co. Then the market will be calling for the BOJ to come riding to the rescue.

The Japanese monster is still stirring but it’s still in the balance whether it wakes or goes back to sleep.