Over 80 percent of major companies expect the economy to grow toward the end of this year, but most do not see the expansion lasting beyond the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to a recent Kyodo News survey.

Around 82 percent of the 113 companies surveyed in July, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp., said they think the economy will expand at least moderately in 2018, citing increases in corporate investment and rises in personal spending despite uncertainties stoked by U.S. protectionism.

The upbeat outlook comes with the Japanese economy in its second-longest expansion cycle in the postwar period.