The Japanese Finance Ministry released their figures for 2013 showing that Japan had a record trade deficit, exceeding even the previous year’s numbers.

For the first time in three years Japan posted an year-on-year rise in the value of exports, mostly caused by the continued loss in value of the yen compared to the dollar, with a simultaneous uptick in the value of imports.

Last year was the third year in a row that Japan had a trade deficit, the first time since data on this information became available in 1979. Last year’s trade deficit totaled 11.47 trillion yen ($112 billion). That number represents a giant increase of 65.3 percent over the previous year’s record of 6.94 trillion yen.

Japan’s trade with the United States is the highest for all countries and regions. The total exports from Japan to the US were up 15.6 percent, to 12.93 trillion yen. Part of that increase came from the sale of Japanese cars to US markets.