Japan's current account surplus rose in April for the first time in two months, up 15.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.256 trillion yen, due partly to the effects of the SARS epidemic, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The chronic deficit in the balance of services trade shrank 29.3 percent from a year earlier to 378.6 billion yen, reflecting a 42 percent plunge in the number of Japanese traveling overseas from the year before, the ministry said.

The decline in overseas travel is believed to have been due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic, a ministry official said. Travelers may have also been wary because of the Iraq war.