Japan's exports grew the most since 2010 in April while capital spending rose on surging global demand for cars and electronics, lifting hopes that an improvement in trade could help lead the world's third-largest economy back to growth.

Also brightening the outlook, confidence among the nation's manufacturers hit a more than two-year high in May on the back of solid overseas orders, a Reuters survey showed on Thursday.

While the stronger exports and imports are partly helped by the favorable statistical base effects from the major plunge in trade seen a year earlier, real demand is also on the mend.