The outlook of the nation's corporations -- particularly large manufacturers -- continued to improve over the past three months, according to the latest quarterly "tankan" business sentiment survey, released Tuesday by the Bank of Japan.
Overall, the diffusion index -- the percentage of companies that believe business is favorable minus those that feel the opposite -- rose for the seventh consecutive quarter among firms in all four categories: large and small manufacturers and large and small nonmanufacturers.
Corporate optimism was most conspicuous at large manufacturers of electrical machinery, reflecting strong domestic demand for information technology-related products. Their index soared to a reading of 41, up 14 points from the June survey.