The big boys are really starting to throw their weight around. The Tankan survey itself hints at this as well. The estimates for sales at the smaller non-manufacturing firms were actually revised downward into negative territory. The big firms, i.e. the listed companies, are starting to play hardball. They are cutting costs and overheads.
Profits are up and look set to continue to rise.
But the problem is that the vast majority of Japanese people are getting the stick, not the carrot. Thus, the strong recovery in firms' profits can be almost entirely attributed to wage cuts and pulling cost cuts out of smaller firms, which then have to cut wages even more. But that is at the margin. Profits are marginal profits less overheads. So if fixed costs are cut, profits can rise faster.