Japan Current Account: Updated Nov. 14, 2025.

Japan logs record 17.5 tril. yen current account surplus in April-Sept.

Article source:  https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251111/p2g/00m/0bu/016000c

Ideas

Japan watches its current account very closely, as being a export oriented economy, it needs more exports, which adds money to the current account compared to imports which takes money out of the current account.

Japan is also a relatively high spending government economy so the Japanese government needs a lot of money moving into its current account, by way of exports, to keep its government programs running.

It must be remembered, that Japanese companies might have exported more than their usual amount to the US to try and beat the US tariff situation and it increases in prices on products.

Import prices, due to a combination of global energy prices being somewhat high and the variance in the key rate in Japan and the US causing the Japanese yen to be much weaker that it should be, which again causes or caused import prices to Japan to be high.

Japan is very good at being able to export to many countries as it doesn't rely only on shipping to the US but to many other economies globally.

To overcome the negatives related to the US tariff situation and the possibility of less sales in the US, Japan needs to continue to ship to other economies to offset the loss in sales it might see in the US.

Japan just doesn't rely on exports but has a robust overseas investment situation as many Japanese companies and wealthy citizens now invest overseas as maybe can get a better rate on their investments overseas than in Japan.

Investors, globally, whether companies or individual, are not loyal to any country or economy and they will go to where ever they get the best rate for their money these days.

Japan, unfortunately, still relies on foreign technology which they still pay a lot for which affects Japan's services trade balance.

At the same time, foreign visitors to Japan, and their spending help to reduce the deficit but at this time, due to Japan's heavy reliance on foreign technology its services trade situation is running a deficit, takes money out out of the current account.

Some have suggested that the surge in foreign visitors into Japan and the amount of spending they do might be considered another economic driver, which means it can significantly improve Japan's economy.

While the surge in foreign visitors and the spending they do is significant its still not enough yet to tip the balance of the Japanese economy into the positive zone or economic growth.

And then there is talk now of too many foreign tourists into Japan as some want to limit the number of tourists and or tax them or something like a tourist tax to try and reduce the number of foreigners into Japan.

But Japan needs to be very careful as tourism is a very fluid sector and can change quickly in the wrong direction if not done correctly.

While this all sounds good, with an increase in the September current account and primary income surging too, the Japanese economy still doesn't grow that much.

Japan is a very staple economy but it just doesn't grow that much as maybe 0.5 percent or maybe at the most 1.0 percent in GDP growth is all that can be expected, as Japan is very mature economy, which means it takes more and more resources to grow an economy.

Some might say Japan is not a very innovative economy as it takes more and more innovative ideas and technologies to grow and economy which Japan doesn't seem to have at the moment.

At the same time, some might say Japanese companies are not very innovative and they are still too old-school and rely on a system that only works for them in Japan but doesn't work globally, and its becoming more clear what works in Japan or has worked in Japan, is now outdated and they need new technologies and a new type of innovation to grow the economy.

Have a nice day!