Japan is racking up a giant trade deficit as oil and gas imports surge after the nuclear crisis.
The Japanese Finance Ministry reported Wednesday a 520 billion yen ($6.5 billion) trade deficit for April. Japan marked its biggest annual trade deficit ever for the fiscal year ending March.All of Japans 50 nuclear power reactors are offline in the aftermath of a nuclear crisis set off in March 2011 by the tsunami, forcing this nation to rely on oil and gas-fired generation to supply electricity.