Japan's trade surplus in 2016 stirs fears of backlash by US

Tokyo

JAPAN recorded its first trade surplus in six years in 2016, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday, in an announcement seen as politically-sensitive, given Tokyo's anxiety about becoming entangled in a trade war with the US administration of President Donald Trump.

The new president has accused both Japan and China of engaging in trade practices he has described as being unfair to US companies, and has singled out motor-vehicle trade with Japan as an instance of this "unfairness".

But analysts have been quick to point out that Japan's trade surplus of just over 4 trillion yen (S$49.9 billion) last year - compared to its 2015 deficit of 2.8 trillion - had come from a sharp drop in the value of Japanese imports during th…