Japanese consumers are spending more as the economy improves and people look to buy big-ticket items before the sales tax goes up in April.

Household spending increased 3.7% in September from a year earlier, while overall retail sales increased 3.1%, official data showed Tuesday. The spending rise was the highest since March. Among wage-earner households, "propensity to consume" -- the amount of disposable income actually being spent -- rose 3.5 percentage points to 90.2%.

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