Japan's trade surplus shrinks 31% in June as exports to U.S. plunge
Japan's trade surplus in June shrank 30.8 percent from a year earlier to 153.1 billion yen ($1 billion) as automobile and other exports to the United States plunged amid higher tariffs, government data showed Thursday, Kyodo reports.
Overall exports fell 0.5 percent to 9.16 trillion yen, weighed down by a 11.4 percent drop in U.S.-bound shipments to 1.71 trillion yen, marking the third straight month of decline since Washington imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles in April.
Imports edged up 0.2 percent to 9.01 trillion yen, lifted by pharmaceutical products from Ireland and mobile phones from China, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report. The trade balance returned to the black for the first time in three months.
Japan's trade surplus with the United States tumbled 22.9 percent to 669.3 billion yen, down for the second straight month. Imports from the country decreased 2.0 percent to 1.04 trillion yen.
While vehicle shipments to the world's largest economy plunged 26.7 percent in value terms, they rose 3.4 percent by volume.
"Japanese manufacturers continued to absorb the costs of the tariffs," rather than passing them on to customers, said Koki Akimoto, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research.
But the trend is likely to fade as several major Japanese carmakers have announced plans to raise their prices, Akimoto said.
"If that's the case, the price competitiveness of Japanese products will decline in the U.S. market, and the impact of the tariffs will gradually become more visible" in the broader Japanese economy, he added.
Among other products facing higher tariffs, exports of automobile parts to the United States dropped 15.5 percent, while steel shipments plunged 28.5 percent, the ministry said.
Japan remained in the red with China for the 51st consecutive month, logging a deficit of 516.7 billion yen, up 53.7 percent from the year before.
Japan's trade surplus with the rest of Asia, including China, fell 19.1 percent to 450.9 billion yen.
Its trade deficit with the European Union came to 303.2 billion yen, remaining in the red for the 17th straight month.
For the first six months of 2025, Japan logged a trade deficit of 2.22 trillion yen, down 34.2 percent from the previous year.
Exports rose 3.6 percent to 53.36 trillion yen and imports increased 1.3 percent to 55.58 trillion yen in the January-June period.
Earlier, it was reported Japan saw record 21.5 mln foreign visitors in 1H of 2025.