Japan business mood rises, lifting recovery hopes

STORY: Japan has sweated through a long hot summer. But the heat doesn’t seem to have sapped business energy. Figures out Monday (October 2) showed sentiment improving in the third quarter. The closely watched “tankan” index of big-business mood beat forecasts.

Yen tumbles and shares soar as Japan inflation begins to bite

More surprising — and, to analysts, a signal of a fundamental market shift as Japan confronts the combination of long-absent inflation and a historically cheap yen — was the fact that shares in frozen food and refrigerated warehouse giant Nichirei also reached an all-time high that Friday afternoon.