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Trade between Japan and Russia down by 13.84% yoy in March to $633 mln

Liquefied natural gas remained the dominant import from Russia in both March 2026 and fiscal year 2025

TOKYO, April 22. /TASS/. Trade between Russia and Japan fell by 13.84% year-on-year in March 2026, reaching 100.9 billion yen (approximately $633 million), as follows from TASS calculations based on statistics published by the Japanese Ministry of Finance.

In March, imports from Russia fell by 16% year-on-year, while exports from Japan to Russia decreased by 9.4% year-on-year.

In fiscal year 2025 (April 1, 2025 - March 31, 2026), trade turnover between Japan and Russia increased by 3.84% to 1.21 trillion yen ($7.6 billion) compared to fiscal year 2024.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) remained the dominant import from Russia in both March 2026 and fiscal year 2025, accounting for 58.9% and 57.1% of total Russian imports to Japan, respectively.

Automobiles and vehicle components remain a key component of Japanese exports to Russia, accounting for 70.2% and 60.4% of the total in March and fiscal year 2025, respectively.

Imports from Russia

In March, Japan reduced LNG imports from Russia by 27.3% year-on-year. In fiscal year 2025, LNG imports fell by 1.3%.

Both in March and in the entire fiscal year 2025, Japan did not purchase Russian oil, as it did in the previous fiscal year.

Russian oil is subject to a price ceiling with the exception of supplies from Sakhalin-2, which are linked to LNG supplies from that project.

In March, Japan reduced its coal imports from Russia by 49% and its iron and steel imports by 86.9%. In fiscal year 2025, coal imports from Russia increased by 23.6%, but iron and steel supplies decreased by 62.2%.

Notable import figures in March include a 970.3% increase in grain supplies from Russia. However, this sharp percentage surge is due to generally low base supply volumes for this item.

Exports to Russia

In March 2026, Japan increased passenger car shipments to Russia by 28.8% year-on-year. At the same time, Japan reduced its supplies of auto parts and components to Russia by 3.9%.

In fiscal year 2025, Japan increased auto shipments to Russia by 3.5% compared to fiscal year 2024. Component shipments over the same period decreased by 15.1% compared to fiscal year 2024.

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