Japan Trade Surplus Leaps 65% in Year to $101 Billion : Report Out as Nakasone Ends Visit

Japan’s foreign trade surplus leaped 65% in dollar terms to a record $101.4 billion in the last fiscal year, up from the previous year’s surplus of $61.6 billion, the Finance Ministry reported today.

The ministry said the figures did not reflect the true trading situation, however, because of the plunge of the value of the dollar against the yen.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone wound up a two-day visit to Washington, seeking to soften congressional anger over Japan’s huge trade surplus with the United States.

Japanese exports are shrinking in terms of the home currency, although they are growing rapidly in dollar terms because of the dollar’s plunging value against the yen, Finance Ministry officials told reporters in Tokyo.

$52 Billion for U.S.

In yen terms, the overall surplus rose about 25% during the fiscal year, not 65%, Teruhiko Mano, a director of the government’s Bank of Japan, said in a television interview.

The report did not give a breakdown of trade figures by country. However, Kyodo News Service quoted unidentified Finance Ministry sources as saying the trade surplus with the United States totaled $52 billion for the fiscal year, up 20.1% from the previous year.

The lower value of the dollar obscures changes in trading patterns, economists say. For example, if Japan sells fewer videocassette recorders to the United States, but each one costs far more in dollars, Japan’s surplus seems to Americans to be going up instead of down.

Urges End to Sanctions

As Nakasone wound up his Washington visit today, President Reagan said he hoped that U.S. sanctions against $300 million worth of Japanese electronics products could be lifted “as soon as possible,” perhaps by the time of the upcoming economic summit in Venice in early June.

Reagan imposed 100% tariffs on selected Japanese televisions, computers and power tools on April 17 in retaliation for alleged Japanese violations of a computer chip pricing agreement.

In a joint statement today, Reagan and Nakasone declared that the dollar, which has declined nearly 50% against the yen over the last two years, had fallen enough. “A further decline of the dollar could be counterproductive,” the statement said.

Both Pledge Action

Both leaders agreed to take steps to help ease the U.S. trade deficit with Japan. Reagan promised to seek further reductions in the U.S. budget deficit and Nakasone promised to do more to stimulate domestic demand in Japan--including an interest rate reduction announced the day before. (Story, Page 20.)

Later, in a speech to the National Press Club, Nakasone condemned the House-passed trade retaliation legislation.

“I am apprehensive that the trade bill, which passed the House of Representatives yesterday, if enacted, would lead to a contraction of world trade. I strongly hope that the bill will not be legislated in its current form.”

When asked whether Japan would counter-retaliate with export restraints if the measure does become law, Nakasone said that Japan believed in a widening of trade, not additional restrictions.