apan posted a rare trade deficit in August on soaring oil imports and falling car exports, the government said Thursday, underscoring evidence that external forces are exacerbating the country's economic gloom.
Excluding the month of January when exports usually slow due to the New Year's holidays, this is the first trade deficit for the world's No. 2 economy since November 1982.
Normally, Japanese exports exceed its imports. But in August, imports outpaced exports by 324.0 billion yen ($3.06 billion).
The resource-poor country was saddled with high costs for oil, coal and natural gas, sending its imports up 17.3 percent to 7.38 trillion yen ($69.8 billion). Total exports inched up just 0.3 percent from a year earlier to 7.56 trillion yen ($71.5 billion), as shipments of automobiles and related components fell.
Exports — a key driver of Japan's economy — have taken a hit this year amid slowdowns in North America and other major global markets. Exports to the U.S. fell 21.8 percent during the month, and those to Western Europe slipped 3.6 percent. Declines were offset in part by still healthy demand from China, Russia and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, the import bill for petroleum jumped more than 64 percent, and the cost of coal surged 121 percent.
Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano downplayed the data's significance, blaming the August trade deficit on U.S. economic woes.
"I expect it will only be a temporary phenomenon and believe that the Japanese economy has not been seriously ill," Kyodo news agency quoted Yosano as saying.
Still, economists don't expect good news when the Bank of Japan's closely watched quarterly "tankan" survey of business conditions is released next week.
The latest report will likely "underscore that the economy is in recession," said Masamichi Adachi, an economist at JP Morgan Securities in Tokyo, in a report last week.
"Adding to the impact of worsened international terms of trade up to the beginning of this quarter, the recent downturn and rising uncertainty in the global economy have no doubt depressed almost all businesses," he said.
Last August, Japan had a 743.6 billion yen ($7.03 billion) surplus, according to the Ministry of Finance.