Japan bleeds $85bn from costly commodities and weak yen

Declining terms of trade put pressure on companies to plan new price hikes

Higher costs for imported wheat and other ingredients have led to a stronger outflow of household income from Japan. © Reuters

TAKAYUKI MAEDA, HIDEKI SHINOHARA and MOMOKA MATSUMOTO, Nikkei staff writers

June 12, 2022 09:30 JST

TOKYO -- A record 11.5 trillion yen ($85.8 billion) left Japan in the January-March quarter amid a historically weak yen and rising commodities prices, while the latest data suggests the country could see even greater outflows in April-June.

Import prices rose 43.3% on the year during May in yen terms, according to the Bank of Japan. This outpaced the 26.3% increase on a contract currency basis and represented the largest jump since comparable data became available in 1981.