The Ministry of Finance (MOF) in Japan announced on Wednesday that Japanese exports to the U.S. dropped 9.2 percent to 1.42 trillion yen in September, showing the first decline in five months.

Japanese automobiles and construction machinery especially slowed in the amount of exports to U.S. in light of the recent U.S subprime meltdown and credit crisis.

Japan's overall trade surplus, however, showed 62.7 percent increase to a record of 1.63 trillion yen due to strong exports to Asian and European countries. The nation's exports to those countries increased almost 10 percent, compensating for the decline of exports to U.S.

The surplus with the EU was increased 26.4 percent due to exports of Japanese cars and that with Asia soared 58.7 percent on strong demand for Japanese communications equipment in the region.

As for the U.S., on the other hand, the surplus decreased 13.2 percent to 789.9 billion yen, showing the first decrease in two months.

The housing market slowdown in the U.S. affected Japanese construction machinery exports. Furthermore, exports of Japanese audiovisual equipment, such as televisions dropped as much as 40 percent.

As for the nation's imports from the U.S., it also decreased 3.7 percent to 635.5 billion yen, showing the second straight month of decline.

Corn and other grains amount of imports soared as the U.S. and Mexico move to bio-energy.

Currently, animal feed prices are soaring all over the world. But the nation's imports for semiconductors and other electric goods from the U.S. showed much decline.

Japan's trade surplus, in overall, showed strong increase in the six months through September, showing 45.7 percent increase from a year before to 5.55 trillion yen. Both exports and imports showed strong increase.

In September, it marked the first decline as for both U.S. exports and imports in three and a half years affected by U.S. market turmoil.

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