Sentiment among major Japanese manufacturers improved for the third straight quarter in December as automakers became more optimistic, while a revival of inbound tourism helped boost nonmanufacturers' confidence to a three-decade high, the Bank of Japan said Wednesday.The reading of the key index, which measures confidence among companies such as those in the auto and electronics sectors, rose to 12 in December from 9 three months earlier, beating the average market forecast of an improvement to 10 in a Kyodo News survey.Marking the seventh straight quarter of increase, the index for large …READ FULL ARTICLE
