TOKYO (AP) — Japan's exports grew at an 11.4% annual pace in February while imports declined slightly, leaving a surplus after two straight months of deficits as worries grow about President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes.
The stronger export growth yielded a trade surplus last month after two straight months of deficits, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
Japan recorded a trade surplus of 584 billion yen ($3.9 billion) last month. It had a trade deficit of 415 billion yen the previous year. The surge in exports outpaced a 7% annual increase in January. Exports totaled 9.19 trillion yen ($61 billion), while imports fell 0.7% to 8.61 trillion yen ($57 billion).
In January, imports jumped nearly 17% year-on-year.
Japan's exports have surged in recent months as businesses rushed to send overseas shipments before Trump’s tariffs kick in.
Higher U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum have already started, but the biggest threat to the Japanese economy will come in auto tariffs that are due to take effect next month. Japanese officials have been seeking an exemption from the Trump administration for Japan, an important trading partner and ally of the U.S.
Japan’s exports to the U.S. grew 10.5% in February while imports from the U.S. fell 2.7%, compared to a year earlier, leaving a surplus of 918.8 billion yen ($6.2 billion).
Exports to Asia jumped about 16% from a year earlier while those to Europe fell 4.5%.
A large share of the jump in exports included food, machinery and vehicles.
Imports from the Middle East fell as oil prices declined.
Also Wednesday, Japan's central bank chose, as expected, to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5%. The central bank has been gradually raising the key rate from below zero to counter rising inflation, but Trump's policies have raised uncertainty over the global economic outlook as well as trade.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama
FILE - A container ship is loaded and unloaded at a container terminal at a port of Kawasaki near Tokyo on March 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara, File)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
