TOKYO, JAPAN - Business confidence among major Japanese manufacturers has improved for the first time in two-and-a-half years, the central bank's quarterly Tankan survey showed Wednesday.

The sentiment index rose to minus 48 in the three months to June from a record low of minus 58 in the previous quarter.

The index measures the percentage of firms that think business conditions are good minus those that think they are bad.

The result follows recent signs that Japan, the world's second largest economy, may be through the worst of its deepest recession since World War II.