Xifres de comerç exterior de Japó

Foreign Trade in Figures

Foreign trade is an essential element of the Japanese economy, but the country is not fully open and imposes extensive non-tariff barriers, especially in the agricultural sector. Japan is the world's 4th largest exporter and fifth-largest importer of goods, and foreign trade accounts for 31% of the country's GDP (World Bank). Japan mainly exports motor vehicles (12.6%) being the second exporter of cars worldwide, electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies (4.5%), auto parts and accessories (4.2%), and ships and boats (1.7%). The country's main imports include petroleum oils (6.8%), petroleum gas and other gaseous hydrocarbons (5.4%), transmission apparatus for radio-telephony (3.9%), automatic data processing machines (3.1%), and electronic integrated circuits and microassemblies (3%).

Japan’s main partners are China (22%), the United States (18.5%), South Korea (7%), Hong Kong (5%), and Thailand (4%). The country mainly imports from China (25.8%), the U.S. (11.3%), Australia (5.6%), South Korea (4.2%) and Thailand (3.7%). Japan is the EU’s second-biggest trading partner in Asia after China, and together they both account for about a quarter of the world's GDP. The two parties signed an Economic Partnership Agreement, which entered into force in 2019. Moreover, Japan signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), arguably the largest free trade agreement in history (its signatories include China, Australia, South Korea, etc., cumulating about 30% of global GDP). The RCEP agreement entered into force on 1 January 2022.

The country traditionally has a large trade surplus; however, in recent years the balance turned null. That was mainly due to plummeting shipments to China and regional markets, as the global pandemic-induced crisis took its toll on the trade-reliant economy. According to WTO, Japan's exports of goods reached USD 641.3 billion (-9% year-on-year) in 2020, while imports amounted to USD 635.4 billion (-11.8% y-o-y). Concerning the service sector, exports decreased 22.9% to USD 156.3 billion, whereas imports lost 10.5% (USD 201.7 billion). According to figures from the Ministry of Finance, in the first six months of 2021 Japanese exports reached USD 346.2 billion, with imports totalling USD 337.7 billion.