People walk on a crosswalk at a business district in central Tokyo, Japan September 29, 2017.
The monthly poll mirrored a similar improvement seen in the third quarter in the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) closely-watched quarterly tankan survey.
The service-sector index grew to plus 27 from plus 24 in the previous month, led by retailers, information and communications, and other services.
Analysts expect Japan's economy, the world's third-biggest, to have shrunk in the third quarter, the first contraction in four quarters, according to a Reuters poll.
The Reuters Tankan indexes are calculated by subtracting the percentage of pessimistic respondents from optimistic ones.
Persons:
Toru Hanai, Tetsushi, Shri Navaratnam
Organizations:
REUTERS, Reuters, Bank of Japan's, pessimists, Thomson
Locations:
Tokyo, Japan, TOKYO, China