Higher energy imports pushed Japan's annual trade deficit to a record high of 11.5 trillion yen ($112bn) in 2013, up 65 per cent from the previous year, the newly released trade data revealed.

Japan's energy imports jumped drastically after the 2011's powerful tsunami and earthquake forced the country to shut all of its nuclear reactors. But, it was mainly the weakness in yen that pushed the cost of energy imports up.

Between January and December last year, Japan's yen slipped more than 20 per cent against the U. S. dollar.

The country's imports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) last year jumped just 0.2 per cent year-on-year by volume, while the value of those imports climbed 18 per cent.

Commenting on the trade data, Martin Schulz of Fujitsu Research Institute, said, "This is the costly flip side of Abenomics. The overall cost of imports is going up, but the exports are not rising enough to offset that."

Japan, the world's third-largest economy, is traditionally known for the strength of its exports, but this is the third consecutive year when the country has reported an annual trade deficit.

Japanese government, led by Shinzo Abe, has introduced a slew of aggressive measures over the past few months to boost the economy. The measures, including doubling money supply in the economy, have come to be known as 'Abenomics'.