Business confidence among major Japanese manufacturers improved from three months ago in June, marking the first improvement in two quarters, the Bank of Japan said Monday. The central bank's quarterly survey showed the business sentiment index among big manufacturers, such as automakers and electronics makers, rose to plus 13 in June, compared with 11 in the previous March survey. The improvement showed that the impact of factory shutdowns of Daihatsu Motor Co., a Toyota Motor Corp. subsidiary, due to a safety testing scandal reduced, and raw-material producers successfully passed on higher costs through price hikes. Confidence among large retailers, banks, real estate companies, and other non-manufacturers worsened by one point to plus 33, the first decline since June 2020. The headline index represents the percentage of companies, which are positive about their business minus the percentage of those who gave negative replies. Thus, a positive number means optimists outnumber pessimists. The "tankan," whic h means short-term economic outlook, is the most closely watched index of business confidence for the world's third-largest economy. Looking ahead, large manufacturers expect their business sentiment index to improve by 1 point to plus 14 in the next survey in September, while major non-manufacturers predict a 6-point drop to plus 27. The latest poll was conducted between May 29 and June 28, covering 9,076 companies, of which 99.2 percent responded. Source: Kuwait News Agency