Tokyo _ Agencies
A government report on Thursday showed that the value of shipments from Japan dropped 1.2 percent on an annual basis to a total of 73,000 trillion yen ($59 billion dollars) in September, the first drop in 22 months.
Natural disasters have led to the closure of major airfields and disruption of supply chains in the past few months.
Imports increased by 7 percent to reach 59 trillion yen, leading to a trade surplus of 139 billion yen, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Exports to China, Japan´s largest trading partner, fell 1.7 percent to 26, 1 trillion yen in the first decline in seven months, while imports rose 2.4 percent to a total of $63 trillion yen, the ministry said.
The cyclone, which struck western Japan on September 4, left 11 people dead, disrupting the transport and closing the Kansai International Airport.
A 7.5-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale hit the northern island of Hokkaido in September last September, leaving more than 40 people dead and electricity cut off from the entire island, and the new airport of Hokkaido, the main airport, was temporarily closed due to power outages and damage caused In the passenger building.
US Trade Representative Robert Lytheiser told Congress on Tuesday that Washington plans to start negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement with Japan in mid-January.
