Looking in more detail, in the corporate sector, exports and production have been on an increasing trend (Chart 3). As I mentioned earlier, demand for IT-related and capital goods has been expanding on a global basis, and this has acted as a tailwind for Japan's manufacturing sector, which has a comparative advantage in these goods.
In fact, Japan's real exports marked a new record high in November 2017 for the first time in about 10 years, exceeding the peak before the global financial crisis, and have maintained their uptrend. In this situation, corporate profits have been at record high levels, and business fixed investment has continued on an increasing trend.