Yen hitting bottom threatens Japan's record profit streak

Tokyo

JAPAN Inc's currency cookie jar may be just about empty.

That's the message in forecasts for the yen, whose three-year slide under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underpinned the expansion of profits to an all-time high and a doubling of stock prices. The benefits went even further: Every year, big exporters such as Mitsubishi Electric Corp beat their own forecasts after making assumptions about the currency's descent that proved too conservative.