Japan had a merchandise trade surplus of 152.513 billion yen in November, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday.
That was shy of expectations for a surplus of 227.4 billion yen following the 496.2 billion yen surplus in October.
Exports were down 0.4 percent on year, beating expectations for a decline of 2.3 percent following the 10.3 percent fall in the previous month.
Imports slipped an annual 8.8 percent versus expectations for a decline of 12.1 percent following the 16.5 percent tumble a month earlier.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com