The results of the Business Outlook Survey of Enterprises for July–September 2026 showed that business sentiment among large enterprises had turned net positive, while small and medium-sized enterprises remained net negative. The survey also provided outlooks for sales and ordinary profit, capital investment growth, and labor shortages.
The BSI for business sentiment among large enterprises was net positive at 5.3 points, marking the first time in two quarters that positive sentiment prevailed overall. The manufacturing sector was net positive by 7.6 points, while the non-manufacturing sector was net positive by 4.2 points.
Business sentiment among small and medium-sized enterprises was -10.9 points and is expected to remain net negative. The outlook for small and medium-sized enterprises was -2.8 points for October–December 2026 and -6.4 points for January–March 2027.
Sales for fiscal 2026 are expected to increase 4.1% year on year across all industries, including increases of 5.7% in manufacturing and 3.5% in non-manufacturing. Ordinary profit is forecast to rise 2.3% across all industries, 5.8% in manufacturing, and 1.0% in non-manufacturing.
Capital investment is expected to increase 11.0% year on year across all industries, with increases of 12.7% in manufacturing and 10.2% in non-manufacturing. Meanwhile, the employee headcount assessment BSI was 26.7 points for large enterprises and 27.8 points for small and medium-sized enterprises, indicating that labor shortages remained prevalent.