Japan's economy has taken a hit again. The newly released Q3 GDP data shows that the annualized growth rate has fallen to -1.8%, marking the first negative growth in six consecutive quarters. Even more embarrassingly, this result is better than market expectations (which originally anticipated a 2.5% fall). Following the news, the Nikkei 225 index dropped by 1%, closing at 49,864.87 points.

Interestingly, this wave of "not so bad" is seen as good news? By this logic, the Japanese economy has managed to escape a dire situation. However, the continued negative growth is still unsustainable, and how to stop the bleeding moving forward is crucial.