Japanese firms’ mood worsens as yen slump rattles

Toyota Motor Corp workers assemble a Mirai fuel-cell vehicle at the company’s plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture. A quarterly poll by the Ministry of Finance shows Japanese firms are expected to raise capital spending in the current fiscal year to March, but they are seen cutting expenditures in the next fiscal year. — Bloomberg

TOKYO: Confidence at big Japanese manufacturers worsened in January-March and is seen turning negative in the second quarter as a slumping yen ramped up the costs of raw material imports, a survey showed, complicating Tokyo’s stimulus-driven campaign to revive the economy.

The quarterly poll by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office released yesterday suggests the drawbacks of a weak yen may be outweighing its benefits, which have not spread to broader sectors of the economy.