Japan's Finance Ministry officials have released preliminary figures showing Japan's trade deficit came to about 9.9 billion dollars in January.
The balance of trade has been in the red for 31 straight months, giving Japan the longest run of shortfalls since comparable data became available in 1979, according to Japan's NHK WORLD website.
The deficit in January was substantially smaller than for the same month last year, in part due to falling oil prices.
Exports grew 17 percent in yen terms, while imports decreased 9 percent.