Japan logs first half-year trade surplus since Fukushima

The Japanese economy was hammered by the quake-tsunami disaster that sparked the accident at Fukushima

Japan posted its first half-year trade surplus since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, after the accident sent the country's energy import bills soaring, data showed on Monday.

The world's third largest economy logged a January-June surplus of 1.8 trillion yen ($17.06 billion), against a 1.69 trillion yen deficit in the same period last year, the finance ministry said.

A sharp drop in oil and gas prices took pressure off Japan's trade balance, but exports still struggled to make headway with a sharp rise in the yen weighing on profits among some of Japanese biggest firms.

The six-month surplus was the first since the July-December 2010 period, the ministry data showed.

The Japanese economy, which was already struggling at that time, was hammered by the quake-tsunami disaster that sparked the accident at Fukushima.

The nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986, forced the shutdown of atomic reactors in resource-poor Japan, which turned to thermal power plants and pricey fossil fuel imports to keep the lights on.