Tokyo, April 22 (QNA) - Japan logged a trade deficit of 1.71 trillion yen ($10.7 billion) in the year through March, remaining in the red for the fifth straight year, as higher US tariffs implemented since April 2025 dragged down auto exports, government data showed Wednesday.
The country's trade deficit has been declining since a massive 22.09 trillion yen of red ink in fiscal 2022 amid the coronavirus pandemic, but it could widen this business year due to the Middle East conflict, which will drive up imports by value amid elevated crude oil prices, Japan's (Kyodo) news agency quoted economists as saying.
In fiscal 2025, the trade deficit shrank 68.4 percent from the year before, Japan's Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
Exports rose 4.0 percent to 113.24 trillion yen on the back of demand for semiconductors and other electronic devices, while imports edged up 0.5 percent to 114.96 trillion yen from a year earlier amid rising prices for platinum and other nonferrous metals, it said.
The trade deficit with the United States fell 22.1 percent to 7 trillion yen, the biggest drop since fiscal 2008, as exports declined 6.6 percent for the first decrease in five years, while imports rose 4.3 percent.
Japan's imports of petroleum spirits, derived from oil distillation and used as solvents and fuel, also fell 25.3 percent, a ministry official said. (QNA)