The strengthening yen took a bite out of Japanese corporate earnings in the July-September period, with pre-tax profits declining for the first time in seven quarters.

The Finance Ministry says ordinary profits of non-financial firms totaled 23 trillion yen, or about 153 billion dollars. That's down 3.3 percent in yen terms from the same quarter last year.

The ministry surveyed over 30,000 firms with capital of at least ten million yen, or about 66,000 dollars.

Ordinary profits by manufacturers dropped 15 percent. Automakers and other exporters saw their profits trimmed by the strengthening currency, while oil-related industries were hurt by lower crude prices.

Ordinary profits grew 4.6 percent among non-manufacturers. The information and communications sector enjoyed solid orders.

The survey found that corporate capital investment across all industries surged more than 8 percent from last year.

That was partly due to efforts to boost chip-production capacity amid increasing demand for semiconductors.