Half of the member manufacturers that responded to a recent survey said the yen's rapid weakening has had a negative impact on their businesses, according to a major business lobby in the Kansai area.
The Osaka-based Kansai Economic Federation survey of member companies in May showed 48.9% of manufacturers see the Japanese unit's slip against the U.S. dollar as negatively affecting them, while 42.6% of nonmanufacturers do so.
The survey, based on responses from 115 member companies, showed 18.3% of manufacturers and nonmanufacturers see ¥106-¥110 against the U.S. dollar as the desirable range of the currency pair, followed by 17.4% that find ¥111-¥115 desirable.
Excluding those who answered "don't know" or gave no answer, most of the responding firms favored an exchange range between ¥101 and ¥120.
The yen, which was mostly within the ¥126-¥130 level during May, has continued to weaken this month, sliding to the upper ¥136 level in New York trading Tuesday in a 24-year low.
"Manufacturers have become more heavily influenced (by the trend) than nonmanufacturers, as imports account for a larger share of their purchasing costs than they do for nonmanufacturers," a federation official said.
Meanwhile, among the manufacturers that responded to the survey, 29.8% said a weak yen has had a positive impact on their businesses, while 7.4 percent of nonmanufacturers said so.
Also, 10.6% of manufacturers said the yen's depreciation has had no significant impact on them, whereas 32.4% of nonmanufacturers gave the same answer.
The survey also showed some major firms have been better at taking advantage of a weaker yen than smaller ones.
Among the member companies listed on the top-tier Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, 28.3% said the recent exchange-rate trend affected them positively, while only 5.4% of privately held firms said so.