90% Of Firms See Japan Economy Growing Next Year

Ninety percent of major Japanese companies expect the country's economy to expand in 2022 on hopes that the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic will subside, a Kyodo News survey showed.

Photo Insert: Nagoya commuters in face masks after the declaration of a state of emergency

The survey on 111 companies, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Group Corp., also showed companies increasingly joining global efforts to curb greenhouse gases and striving to ensure economic security amid an intensifying US-China rivalry, with a focus on supply chains for chips and energy resources.

The survey found 75 percent of the firms expect moderate economic growth next year, followed by 15 percent that said the world's third-largest economy will expand in 2022. Five percent said they expect economic conditions to remain unchanged, while no company projected a moderate decline or contraction.

With multiple answers allowed, 93 percent of the firms foreseeing economic expansion said they believe so due to the progress in coronavirus vaccinations, while 83 percent cited the recovery in private consumption and 72 percent pinned hopes on an easing of coronavirus restrictions on economic activities.

Despite the optimistic outlook by the companies, concerns remain over the pandemic going forward, with the government's inoculation campaign remaining slow and the highly contagious Delta variant driving up infection cases nationwide, analysts say.

If the infection situation does not improve as hoped for, recovery of private consumption could be delayed, and supply chains could be disrupted, respondents in the survey said. As for the current condition of Japan's economy, 56 percent of the companies said it is flat, and 40 percent said it is expanding moderately.

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