Japan recorded a trade deficit for a fourth consecutive month, extending a streak of negative current-account readings driven by steep rises in the cost of imported energy.
The trade figures come as global oil prices remain elevated following disruptions and supply concerns linked to conflict in the Middle East. Japan, one of the world's largest energy-importing nations, saw its import bill swell as payments for crude surged, outpacing the pace of export growth and pushing the trade balance further into negative territory.
The sustained monthly deficits underscore the vulnerability of the world's third-largest economy to external energy price shocks, and highlight the transmission channel through which geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are feeding directly into trade-imbalance pressures across Asia's major advanced economies.
