Japan Inc.'s currency cookie jar may be just about empty.
That's the message in forecasts for the yen, whose three-year slide under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underpinned the expansion of profits to an all-time high and a doubling of stock prices. The benefits went even further: Every year, big exporters such as Mitsubishi Electric Corp. beat their own forecasts after making assumptions about the currency's descent that proved too conservative.
Now the tailwind is fading. Companies in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average that provide forecasts see the yen at 119.76 per dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from their latest filings. The gap between the estimates and the rate at Sept. 30 was the smallest in Abe's era. And strategists say the prospects for further yen declines are fading: They see it slipping less than 2 percent by the end of 2016.