Current Account

Current Account is part of Japan Balance of Payments Related Statistics, the monthly record of deals between residents and nonresidents. It covers goods, services, primary income from overseas assets, and secondary income from transfers during 1 calendar month under BPM6 rules used from 2014 onward. It is a census style compilation, not a sample survey, built from settlement reports above 30000000 yen plus customs trade and travel data. It does not measure only goods trade, and it excludes investment flows themselves, counting only dividends, interest and reinvested earnings.

Monthly preliminary figures appear around the 8th day, 2 months after the reference month, about 40 days after month end, at 8:50 am Tokyo time. If the 8th is a non business day, the date shifts, while quarterly second preliminary and regional breakdowns follow with a longer lag. Each monthly release includes direct investment for ownership stakes and portfolio investment for securities, with extra regional detail each quarter. Preliminary figures use estimates, second preliminary adds actual and late data, November revises reinvested earnings, and Historical Data pages hold definitive figures. Yearly retained earnings spread as one twelfth per month until actual data replace them.

4 accounting parts sum to the balance, with income outweighing trade for Japan.

• Goods: merchandise exports and imports plus merchanting, trade arranged abroad, and nonmonetary gold on ownership change basis.
• Services: transport, travel, construction, finance, intellectual property charges and other business services, often in deficit except travel.
• Primary income: pay for work plus dividends, interest and reinvested earnings from overseas assets, the main surplus driver.
• Secondary income: transfers such as insurance claims, aid contributions and remittances, usually in small deficit.

Calendar year 2024 gave a 29.3 trillion yen surplus, up 29.5%, the largest since comparable data started in 1985. Primary income surplus hit a record 40.2 trillion yen; goods deficit narrowed 40 percent to 3.9 trillion yen and travel earned 5.9 trillion yen. December 2024 surplus was 1.08 trillion yen after 3.35 trillion yen in November 2024, showing monthly swings around the yearly trend. The lesson is composition: overseas income offset trade weakness, yet much stayed reinvested abroad, so a record surplus did not mean yen strength.

1. Credits and debits: Record each deal twice at equal value, with exports and income receipts as credits and imports and income payments as debits.
2. Timing: Record goods at customs crossing, securities deals at commitment, and services and income at settlement.
3. Valuation: Value customs goods free on board (FOB) and convert foreign sums into yen.
4. Coverage filter: Keep only deals between residents based in Japan and nonresidents based abroad under trade law criteria. Presence of 1 year or more defines residents, while embassies are enclaves. United States Forces Japan count as nonresident.
5. Aggregation: Add 4 balances as credits minus debits: CA = (Xg minus Mg) + (Xs minus Ms) + (Rp minus Pp) + (Rs minus Ps). For example, goods 9000 minus 9500 leave negative 500 and services 2000 minus 2200 leave negative 200. Primary 4500 minus 1500 adds 3000 and secondary 200 minus 500 gives negative 300, for a 2000 billion yen surplus.
6. Seasonal adjustment: For major parts, adjusted series use the United States Census Bureau X-12-ARIMA method, with factors revised and republished.