The monthly Reuters poll seeks to track the Bank of Japan's tankan quarterly survey.

  • January manufacturers' sentiment index -1 vs December -9
  • Service-sector index -11 in January vs December -4

The manufacturing index is at its highest (note still net pessimistic) since July 2019.

The numbers, index readings, are derived by subtracting the percentage of respondents who say conditions are poor from those who say they are good. A negative reading means pessimists outnumber optimists.

A couple of notes from the report:

  • driving the improvement for manufacturers were the chemical, metal products and electric machinery sub-sectors
  • "The car market is rapidly recovering, especially in China, and demand for electronic parts is growing"
  • service industry ... virus resurgence as a major headwind ... "Customer numbers have declined significantly in line with the spread of coronavirus infections"