Major Japanese companies are growing more pessimistic about the economy due to worries over prolonged U.S.-China trade tensions and last year's consumption tax hike, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday.
Of 113 companies polled, including Toyota Motor Corp., NTT Docomo Inc. and Sony Corp., 19 percent said Japan's growth was gradually expanding, down from 23 percent in last summer's survey, while none said the world's third-largest economy was growing strongly.
Some 61 percent said the economy was flat, and 19 percent saw it as in gradual recession. Of them, 26 percent picked a "slowdown in trade due to the spread of protectionism" as the underlying cause, and 14 percent chose an "economic slowdown in China," according to the survey conducted between early November and early December.