Japanese companies' cash holdings rose to a record last quarter, highlighting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's struggle to spur the investment and wage increases needed to end a 15-year deflationary malaise.

Corporate holdings of cash and deposits rose to 224 trillion yen ($2.15 trillion), up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, according to a Bank of Japan report released yesterday.

The yen's 17 percent slide against the dollar this year has boosted exporters' profits, contributing to a cash pile similar in size to Russia's gross domestic product. As Abe campaigns to reflate the world's third-biggest economy, he's relying on company spending to drive a longer-term recovery once the jolt from fiscal and monetary stimulus wears off.

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