The Improvement in Corporate earnings and Its Implications for the Japanese Economy
Corporate earnings have been greatly increasing in Japan since FY 2002 as business conditions continue to recover. This ongoing improvement in corporate earnings has the following distinctive characteristics: (a) earnings have risen to a high level across a wide range of industries; (b) fixed expenses were greatly reduced and have subsequently remained suppressed overall; and (c) a gradual decline in prices has been coexisting with increases in both sales and earnings.