Pessimism over the nation's economic woes has eased among corporations, albeit only slightly, during the past three months, according to the Bank of Japan's latest "tankan" business sentiment survey released Monday.
The BOJ's quarterly survey for March was in line with last month's upward revision of the bank's economic assessment, which says conditions appear to have stopped deteriorating.
The latest tankan results show the first improvement since June 1997. Taken from the beginning of March, the survey also seems to indicate that the government's economic stimulus package and the BOJ's extra-easy monetary policy are easing the financial squeeze.