Japan - Current Account Balance





Japan: Current Account Balance

Mnemonic TAB.IJPN
Unit 100 Mil. JPY, SA
Adjustments Seasonally Adjusted
Monthly 50.7 %
Data Jan 2024 27,275
Dec 2023 18,099

Series Information

Source Bank of Japan
Release Balance of Payments - Monthly
Frequency Monthly
Start Date 1/31/1996
End Date 1/31/2024

Japan: Trade

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Balance of Goods Jan 2024 235,283 -440,066 Mil. JPY, SA Monthly
Current Account Balance Jan 2024 27,275 18,099 100 Mil. JPY, SA Monthly
Exports of Goods Jan 2024 8,765,262 9,092,781 Mil. JPY, SA Monthly
Imports of Goods Jan 2024 8,529,979 9,532,847 Mil. JPY, NSA Monthly
Exports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 137,200 130,799 Bil. JPY, SAAR Quarterly
Imports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 141,463 136,044 Bil. JPY, SAAR Quarterly
Net Exports 2023 Q4 -4,262 -5,245 Bil. JPY, SAAR Quarterly
Real Exports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 115,187 112,287 Bil. Ch. 2015 JPY, SAAR Quarterly
Real Imports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 108,992 107,179 Bil. Ch. 2015 JPY, SAAR Quarterly
Real Net Exports 2023 Q4 6,194 5,108 Bil. Ch. 2015 JPY, SAAR Quarterly

Release Information

For Japan, detailed balance of payments (monthly and quarterly) and gross external debt.

The BOP is a statistical statement that systematically summarizes, for a specific time period, the economic transactions of an economy with the rest of the world. The transactions between residents and nonresidents consist of: (1) those involving goods, services, and income, (2) those involving financial claims and liabilities, and (3) those classified as transfers. A transaction itself is defined as an economic flow that reflects the creation, transformation, exchange, transfer, or extinction of economic value and involves changes in ownership of goods and/or financial assets, the provision of services, or the provision of labor and capital.

The external debt statistics show the current state of Japan's liabilities with respect to other countries, with a breakdown by sector. Data are also broken down by short-term and long-term on an original maturity basis and also by instrument.

Balance of payments

Active:

  • Framework: IMF BPM6
  • Measurement: 100 million Japanese yen (100 Mil. JPY)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonaly adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequencies:
    • Monthly
    • Quarterly
  • Start dates:
    • As early as 1996m1
    • 2014Q1 for most

Predecessors:

  • BPM5 monthly - 1996m1 to ?? ("_B5")
  • BPM5 quarterly - 1996Q1 to ?? ("_B5")

External debt

Active:

  • Framework: IMF BPM6
  • Measurement: Billions of Japanese yen (Bil. JPY)
  • Adjustment: Not seasonaly adjusted (NSA)
  • Native frequency: Quarterly
  • Start date: Uniformly 2014Q1

Predecessor:

  • BPM5 - 2009Q1 to ?? ("_B5")

Balance of payments

On March 10, 2014, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan started with the release of new balance of payments related statistics conforming with the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6) and at the same time released historical time series data consistent with the new statistics (referred to as "rearranged data" hereafter). The latest data release is according to BPM6. It starts at 2014Q1. Additional BOP details and country breakdowns are available from the source. You may also refer to the monthly Balance of Payments data for further details (see catalog). 

External debt

Japans international investment position is based on a year end report. therefore external debt is estimated at quarterly frequency using reports with end of quarter data, the existing  international investment position data balance of payments data, and factors in market value. For compatibility purposes this data is compiled based on the IMF's Balance of Paymnets Manual (Sixth Edition).

Current balance =
market value of previous period-end balance of yen-denominated holdings
+ market value of previous period-end balance of foreign currencydenominated holdings (in yen)
+ market value of yen-denominated flow
+ market value of foreign currency-denominated flow (in yen)

Calculating Component:

Debt securities
At the quarter end, the outstanding amount of inward portfolio investment is calculated, and is broken out by long-term and short-term.
Trade credits
At the quarter end, the outstanding amount of trade credits is calculated, and is broken out by long-term and short-term
Loans
At the quarter end, the outstanding amount of borrowings from nonresidents is calculated, the data is then broken out by long-term and short-term on the basis of the contract term.
Cash and deposits
At the quarter end, cash and deposits from nonresidents outstanding is calculated, and classified as short-term.
Other liabilities
At the quarter end, the outstanding amount of transactions categorized under “other investment” excludes trade credits, loans, or cash and deposits is calculated, and classified as short-term or long-term based on the term of the contract.
Direct investment (intercompany lendings)
At the quarter end, the outstanding amount is calculated for liabilities from nonresident, resident, and for liabilities from residents to nonresident, excludes equities.

Balance of payments

Major current account items have seasonally adjusted data and the seasonal adjustment factors using the U.S. Census Bureau's X-12-ARIMA method are disseminated.

External debt

Only the revised data for the end of calendar year are not estimates. This data is equal to those of the international investment position compiled annually and based on year-end reports.

  • Sep 2005 - Initial version.
  • Jul 2014 - Framework advanced to BPM6.
  • 12 Nov 2023, Phillip Thorne - Properties, Further reading.