Japan record trade deficit

began in 1979, the finance ministry said.
The record figure comes after Japan registered its first annual trade deficit in 31 years in 2011, and triggered warnings that the country was likely to see more negative figures throughout the year.
The January statistic was more than triple the year-before shortfall of 479,4 billion yen and far exceeded the previous monthly record of 967,9 billion yen in January 2009 during the global financial crisis. — AFP.