Bank of Japan Releases Comprehensive September Tankan Data Set

The Bank of Japan on October 2, 2026 released the Comprehensive Data Set of the September 2026 Tankan, the Short-Term Economic Survey of Enterprises in Japan, publishing statistical tables that run to 244 pages across six Excel workbooks. The central bank’s release page is dated October 2, 2026 and places the data set one day after the survey’s Summary and Outline, which it lists as released on October 1.

The survey’s Summary and Outline page, dated October 1, 2026, had marked both the Comprehensive Data Set and the BOJ Time-Series Data Search as “Released on October 2nd.” The October 2 page in turn records that the Summary, a 225KB PDF, and the Outline were released on October 1. The Bank’s TANKAN statistics index lists the September 2026 Summary and Outline under October 1, 2026 and the Comprehensive Data Set under October 2, 2026.

Under the Bank’s outline of statistics and release schedule, statistics are released immediately upon completion, and statistics marked for time-series distribution are made available on the BOJ Time-Series Data Search at around 8:50 a.m. on the day of the release.

The data set is published as six partial Excel files, all2609a.xlsx (332KB), all2609b.xlsx (196KB), all2609c.xlsx (565KB), all2609d.xlsx (280KB), all2609e.xlsx (340KB) and all2609f.xlsx (176KB), together with a single full-data package, all2609.zip (1,662KB), according to the contents page for the data set. The page notes that the files are written in Japanese and English.

The October 1 release, reported on this desk for the rise in large manufacturer sentiment to plus 24, put the business-conditions diffusion index for large manufacturers at 24, up from 22 in the June 2026 survey, with large nonmanufacturers at 35, down from 37, and the all-enterprises, all-industries index at 21, up from 18. The Summary, prepared by the Bank’s Research and Statistics Department, covered 9,104 sample enterprises (3,776 in manufacturing and 5,328 in nonmanufacturing) with a 99.4 percent response rate over a responding period from August 26 to September 30. The Outline showed all enterprises’ average predicted exchange rates for fiscal 2026 at 154.23 yen per U.S. dollar and 177.86 yen per euro; it defines the fiscal year as running from April through March of the following year.

Structure of the Statistical Tables

The enterprises section of the workbook opens with thirteen judgement-survey diffusion-index tables: business conditions (page 2); domestic and overseas supply and demand conditions (pages 4 and 6); inventory level of finished goods and wholesalers’ inventory level (pages 8 and 10); production capacity (page 12); employment conditions (page 14); financial position (page 16); lending attitude of financial institutions (page 18); change in interest rate on loans (page 20); conditions for CP issuance, based on CP-issuing enterprises (page 22); and change in output and input prices (pages 24 and 26). Tables giving the percentage share of respondents choosing each answer alternative, broken out for all, large, medium-sized and small enterprises, run from page 28 to page 34, followed by counts of reporting enterprises on pages 36 through 42.

Annual projections in year-to-year percent-change terms occupy pages 44 through 104. They cover sales, domestic sales and exports; four predicted-exchange-rate tables spanning dollar-yen and euro-yen rates for all enterprises and for exporting enterprises; current profits; net income; fixed investment including land purchasing expenses; software investment; land purchasing expenses; software and fixed investment excluding land purchasing expenses; R&D investment; combined software, R&D and fixed investment excluding land purchasing expenses; and the ratio of current profit to sales. Nominal yen-denominated figures for the same family of items run from page 108 to page 188, followed by counts of enterprises reporting increases or decreases in profits on page 196 and enterprises reporting deficits on page 197.

An inflation-outlook section covers the outlook for output prices from page 198 and the outlook for general prices from page 210. A separate block for financial institutions, business consultants and pure holding companies carries judgement-survey tables on pages 224 and 225 and annual projections on pages 226 through 229, while overseas business activities projections appear on pages 234 through 238. Memo tables give the number of population and sample enterprises on page 242 and standard error ratios on page 244.

Place in the Tankan Release Framework

The TANKAN index states that the former TANKAN (Figures by Industry) release has been entirely integrated into the Comprehensive Data Set from the March 2020 survey, and that all figures formerly published in the Inflation Outlook of Enterprises release continue to be available as part of the data set, with the average of enterprises’ inflation outlook integrated into the Summary and Outline.

The index also records a discontinuity between time-series data through the December 2003 survey and those in and after the March 2004 survey, reflecting the change in size classification from a number-of-employees basis to an enterprises’-capital basis and major revisions to sample enterprises; data for the December 2003 survey on both bases remain available on the Bank’s website. Time-series data from the March 2009 survey onward are also provided through the BOJ Time-Series Data Search.

Two 2026 notices listed on the index frame coming changes to the survey: a June 2, 2026 notice sets out planned revisions of the Tankan introducing a wage survey, and a March 6, 2026 notice covers the regular revision of the Tankan sample enterprises.