Big Japanese firms less pessimistic: govt surveyJapan's large companies were less pessimistic pes·si·mism n. 1. A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view: "We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach" about the economy in the year's second quarter than they were during the previous three-month period, a government survey has shown. The large company business sentiment index sentiment index A numerical guide to investor feeling toward the securities markets that is constructed to determine whether certain segments of the investment community are bullish or bearish. on current conditions was at minus 22.4 in the second quarter against minus 51.3 in January-March, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a joint survey by the Ministry of Finance and the Cabinet Office. The index is calculated by taking the percentage of companies that see an improvement in the economy and subtracting from that the percentage of companies that say the economy is getting worse. The outlook index for big companies stood at minus 2.6 for July-September last year, and at plus 8.7 for the October-December period. The recent improvement raised expectations that the Bank of Japan's closely watched "Tankan" business confidence survey, due on July 1, may also point towards a bottoming-out of Japan's worst recession since World War II. The Nikkei financial daily reported on Sunday that the Tankan survey Tankan Survey An economic survey of Japanese business issued by the central Bank of Japan, which it then uses to formulate monetary policy. The report is released four times a year in April, July, October and mid-December. by the central bank would likely show the first improvement in sentiment in two-and-a-half years among major manufacturers. The index in January-March slumped to a record low of minus 58, as the world's second biggest economy slid deeper into recession. But it is forecast to recover to minus 41 for the April-June quarter, the daily said, citing estimates by 25 private research bodies. Official data have shown Japan's economy, Asia's biggest, shrank shrank v. A past tense of shrink. shrank Verb a past tense of shrink shrank shrink at an annualised 14.2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, its worst rate on record. -- Dow Jones Newswires Dow Jones Newswires is the real-time financial news organization owned by Dow Jones. Founded in 1882, its primary competitors are Bloomberg L.P. and Reuters. The company reports more than 420,000 subscribers -- including brokers, traders, analysts and fund managers -- as of July contributed to this story -- 
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