Business sentiment among workers with jobs sensitive to economic trends in Japan marked the sharpest drop in 13 months in April as the coronavirus pandemic continued to rage and a state of emergency was declared for Tokyo and some other urban areas, government data showed Thursday.
The diffusion index of confidence in current conditions compared with three months earlier among "economy watchers," such as taxi drivers and restaurant staff, tumbled 9.9 points from March to 39.1, the first fall in three months, according to the Cabinet Office.
The drop was the largest since a plunge of 13.0 points in March last year, when uncertainty over the economic outlook began to grow rapidly due to the spread of the virus across the country.