Some 72% of major Japanese companies expect the economy to expand at a moderate pace in 2021 amid hopes that the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic will subside, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday.
Despite the positive forecast for the world's third-largest economy, more than a quarter of the 109 firms in the survey, or 29%, said they are not sure when their sales will return to pre-pandemic levels, and 13% expect any recovery to materialize in 2023 or later, indicating that corporate Japan remains cautious about business conditions.
A sense of caution prevailed toward the end of 2020 as Japan was hit by a resurgence of coronavirus cases. The third wave of infections came as the Japanese economy was gradually rebounding from its worst contraction in the April-June quarter when Japan was placed under a state of emergency over the virus.