Tankan survey seen showing rising business confidence

A key survey of Japanese business confidence due out this week is expected to reinforce an upbeat outlook for the world's number two economy, showing companies growing more optimistic.
The Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey for September, which will be published on Monday, is tipped to support the government's view that the Japanese economy has pulled out of a soft patch.
The headline Tankan index of sentiment among large manufacturers is expected to show a second consecutive improvement to a reading of 20 from 18 in the June survey, according to a survey of 10 brokerages and research institutes.
A positive reading means that confident firms outweigh pessimistic ones.
The survey is set to offer "hard evidence for the government's assessment that the economy has emerged from a lull," said Credit Suisse First Boston economist Satoru Ogasawara.
Robust economic growth and surging share prices are two factors behind the expected pick-up in corporate confidence, he said.
Japan's economy grew by 0.8 percent in the second quarter of 2005, faster than a rate of 0.3 percent previously estimated, official figures showed earlier this month.
On an annualised basis gross domestic product grew by 3.3 percent, up sharply from an earlier estimate of 1.1 percent.
Last month the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan said that the world's second largest economy had emerged from a soft patch, originally triggered by sweeping inventory adjustments in the technology sector.
Solid consumer spending and buoyant capital investment are further factors seen driving growth.
The Tankan survey is also expected to show a slight improvement among large non-manufacturers as well as among smaller companies.
The Ministry of Finance recently announced that Japan's trade surplus in August tumbled 80 percent from a year earlier as high oil prices drove up the cost of imports.
Morgan Stanley economist Takehiro Sato forecast the Tankan survey's main index of large manufacturers would stagnate at a reading of 18 amid worries about the US economy.
The survey would show "an unexpectedly moderate pace of recovery in manufacturing sentiment," he warned.
The diffusion index for non-manufacturers is expected to rise to 17 from 15 in the June survey, according to the poll of 10 private-sector economists.