The nation's foreign exchange reserves totaled $338.58 billion at the end of April, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The data are the first to be released under new criteria launched by the International Monetary Fund. Forty-seven of the IMF's 182 member economies have voluntarily signed up for the new standards.

The new requirements provide a more detailed breakdown of the types of assets the member economies hold and calculates those assets at current market prices.

Under the old standards, Japan's foreign reserves would have been $317.15 billion at the end of April, up $11.64 billion from a month earlier, on the back of dollar-buying market intervention conducted by the Bank of Japan at the beginning of the month, the ministry said.

It would have been the fifth straight month the nation's foreign reserves -- securities and deposits denominated in foreign currencies, IMF reserve positions, IMF special drawing rights and gold -- have set a record high.

At the end of April, Japan possessed $252.40 billion in foreign securities and $71.71 billion in foreign currency deposits, the ministry said.

Of the deposits, $7.62 billion was in foreign central banks and the Bank for International Settlements, $43.62 billion was in Japanese banks and $20.47 billion was in foreign banks.

Japan also held $5.38 billion in IMF reserve positions, $2.43 billion in IMF SDRs and $6.66 billion in gold, according to the ministry.

Based on the old statistics available at the end of February, Japan remained the largest foreign reserve holder of any nation or region for five months in a row, with $294.5 billion.

The 11-member euro zone ranked second at the end of the same month with $267.3 billion. The euro zone consists of Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

Among other major foreign reserve holders, China had $159.6 billion at the end of January, and Taiwan had $106.9 billion at the end of December.

Hong Kong's reserves totaled $94.3 billion at the end of January, South Korea held $79.7 billion at the end of February and Singapore had $75.9 billion at the end of January.

The dollar started trading in Tokyo in April at 104.13 yen and finished the month at 106.44 yen, after fluctuating between 102.82 yen and 107.03 yen.