Japanese Trade Surplus Takes 1st Dip Since ’90 : Commerce: A Tokyo official credits the 0.1% decline to an unusual number of holidays in May.

Japan’s trade surplus fell in May for the first time in 29 months, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

The 0.1% decline from last year’s level, however, seemed unlikely to comfort trading partners that have demanded Japan do more to balance its trade. Japan still enjoys considerable trade surpluses and has rejected U.S. demands to set targets for American imports.

Japan’s surplus with the United States fell by 2.1% from May, 1992, the first decline in 14 months, said a Finance Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The surplus with the European Community plummeted 27.1% from a year earlier.

The official attributed the smaller surplus to one more holiday in May than in May of last year and to longer vacations taken by manufacturers during a week of holidays. He said the smaller number of workdays reduced exports, but imports would be affected less because goods arrive regardless of the holidays.

The global surplus amounted to $7.72 billion on exports of $26.85 billion, up 5.6% from a year earlier, and imports of $19.12 billion, up 8.2%.

The surplus with the United States totaled $2.77 billion on Japanese exports of $7.39 billion, up 6.8%, and imports of $4.62 billion, up 13.0% from last year.