The Tankan‘s big manufacturer index slipped to 12 in December from 13 in September, lower than the median forecast of 13 polled by Bloomberg. In the outlook for next March, the Tankan Index was forecast to worsen to +9. Japan’s large manufacturers based their capital expenditure and business operations plans on the assumption that the yen would average 103.36 per dollar in the current fiscal year, even though the Japanese yen has been trending at around 117-118. Given the cautious stance of Japan’s large manufacturers, the biggest beneficiaries from a weaker yen, “it is becoming more difficult to sense the additional merits of JPY depreciation,” according to Barclays analysts Kyohei Morita and Yuichiro Nagai.