Exports fell 5.8 percent in August from a year earlier, declining for a third straight month on weak demand in Europe and China, resulting in a trade deficit of ¥754.1 billion, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
The figures were better than expected: Median forecasts in Bloomberg News surveys of analysts were for a 7.5 percent drop in exports and an ¥829.3 billion trade gap. Imports, meanwhile, slid 5.4 percent.
Soaring tensions between China and Japan over the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea pose a risk to bilateral trade that has tripled in the past decade to more than $340 billion in goods ranging from rice to tractors.