Japan - Exports of Goods

The Foreign Trade Indexes for Japan measure the value and volume of exports and imports traded with the U.S., EU, Asia, and the rest of the world. The data are released in conjunction with Foreign Trade statistics. Monthly from 1998. Produced by the Customs and Tariff Bureau, which is part of the Ministry of Finance.

Active:

• Commodity classification: HS derivative
• Valuations: Exports at FOB, imports at CIF
• Measurements:
  • Millions of Japanese yen (Mil. JPY)
  • Volume index relative to 2015 (Vol. Index 2015=100)
  • Value index (Index 2015=100)
• Adjustments:
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Monthly
• Start dates:
  • Levels, finalized - As early as 1979m1
  • Levels, provisional - Uniformly 2000m1
  • Indexes - 1995m7
  • Indexes by geo - 2022m11

Predecessors:

• 2015=100 - 2017m8 to 2023m11 ("_15")
• 2010=100 - 2012m8 to 2018m6 ("_10")
• 2005=100 - 2007m1 to 2013m6 ("05")
• 2000=100 - 1998m1 to 2008m9 ("00")

Authority: The Trade Statistics of Japan are made and published by the Ministry of Finance and the Customs under the provision of the Customs Law and the relevant international conventions. The method is described in the Order of Director General of the Customs and Tariff Bureau.

Source: Declarations submitted to Customs.

Exports: Entry is made in the month within which falls the date when a ship or aircraft loading the goods concerned leaves a Japanese port. Valued at FOB.

Imports: Entry is made in the month within which falls the date of the import permit. Valued at CIF.

Geographic aggregates

The aggregate "EU" refers to the changing-composition European Union. That is, the index at time T refers to the N members at time T. (Direct communication with source.)

• 1979~1980: 9
• 1981~1985: 10
• 1986~1994: 12
• 1995~2003: 15
• 2004~2006: 25
• 2007~2012: 27 excl. Croatia
• 2013~2020m1: 28
• 2020m2~present: 27 excl. U.K. (i.e., post-Brexit)

The aggregate "Asia" includes China.

Provisional data

In addition to final monthly results, the source reports two sets of provisional results, which count only the first 10 and 20 days of each month. These time series have 21 fewer years of data.

Moody's Analytics supplements

We compute trade balance as the identity "exports less imports." This is reported by the source, but it is more convenient for us to reconstitute it.

Data are subject to three revisions - provisional first 10 days, provisional first 20 days, detailed and fixed.

Trade indexes are rebased every fifth year, with approximately one year of overlapped data. Data Buffet carries five vintages: 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020.

Further reading

At the source:

• Trade Statistics of Japan - homepage
• Code lists (9-digit Japan, 6-digit HS, principal commodity)
• Press releases
• Latest press release
• Imports and exports by EU country

At IMF (SDDS Plus):

• Merchandise trade (Dec 2021 / Jan 2023)

• Sep 2005 - Initial version.
• Aug 2013 - Rebased to 2010.
• Aug 2018 - Rebased to 2015.
• 9 May 2023, Phillip Thorne - Description.
• 23 Nov 2023, Phillip Thorne - Indexes rebased to 2020: Properties, Revisions.