Research by a brokerage firm indicates that many of Japan's listed companies enjoyed robust financial results during the last fiscal year.
The country's earnings season is now in full swing. SMBC Nikko Securities selected and analyzed about 750 companies that had reported their earnings by Thursday.
Its analysts say 57 percent of the firms saw an increase in net profit for the fiscal year that ended in March.
Earnings at air- and land-transport firms were helped by a return to normal economic activities in the wake of the pandemic.
Trading houses also performed well. Their earnings were boosted by soaring prices of imported natural resources and the yen's depreciation.
On the other hand, companies that experienced shrinking net income in fiscal 2022 accounted for 35 percent of the total. Seven percent booked net losses.
The analysts say some companies in the electric-power and chemical industries earned less. That was because they were unable to pass on their rising raw-material costs to customers.