The Nikkei business daily released a poll of Japan's business leaders who expressed more optimism in their expectations of the economic recovery in the country. While most of them believe that the full recovery is unlikely to come earlier than 2010, half of the presidents and chairmen of 137 major companies said they thought that the domestic economy had improved or showed signs of recovery when compared with six months ago.

The previous study that was held in March showed that only 0.7% of respondents said so. The Nikkei poll says that 63.5% of business leaders think the domestic economy's immediate trend is holding steady while 27% said that it is worsening. It is compared with 95.6% of the polled in March who believed the economy was worsening.

Still, 67% of the survey participants say they expect the economy to return to health some time in 2010 - roughly the same percentage as in March.