A container port is seen from a helicopter in Tokyo on Oct 29, 2025. (AP)
TOKYO, Jan 22, (AP): Japan posted a trade deficit for the fifth straight year in 2025, according to government data released Thursday, as exports were hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a diplomatic rift with neighbouring China. For the full year, Japan logged a 2.65 trillion yen ($17 billion) trade deficit, the Finance Ministry reported in its preliminary data.
That was nearly 53% smaller than the deficit Japan marked the previous year. Exports for the year rose 3.1%, while imports remained about the same on-year, gaining less than 1%. For the month of December, Japan recorded a 105.7 billion yen ($669 million) trade surplus. The monthly surplus was 12% smaller than what was racked up a year ago. Imports grew 5.3% from the same month a year ago, while exports grew 5.1%.
By nation, exports to the US declined 11% in December, while exports to Britain, Africa and some other Asian countries rose. Imports from Europe were strong.
The United States has imposed a 15% tariff on most imports from Japan, a reduction from the 25% that Trump initially proposed but an increase from before he took office a year ago.
Another looming concern is the impact on Japanese manufacturing, including automakers, from China’s curbs on exports of rare earths. The controls were announced by Beijing after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested a Chinese move on Taiwan could prompt a Japanese military response.
Takaichi has called a snap elections for next month in hopes her party can gain strength in Parliament while she is popular with the public. Overall, Japan’s economy has held up, despite grumbling from the public about rising prices and stagnant wages. The benchmark Nikkei on the Tokyo Stock Exchange keeps hitting new records.
Rephrase in a different way as if you were a native American speaker as a content creation expert and do not talk about yourself or your experience in the text and do not show yourself as an artificial intelligence who wrote and fill the bullet point in the topic and speak the heart of the topic itself and dont take date of blog in ther first and dont take text like box of newsliter subscribe on post from contentand romove all linke insert in content and and remove all affiliate disclosure phrases on content like this “This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links that allow us to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more info” and “#” put in its place bullet point, and romove name of the web site or his links we are take a content from our new creation, and don’t publish clone new content more than just one time
