China replaced the United States as Japan's largest trade partner in 2004, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.

The trade volume between China, including Hong Kong, and Japan in the past year totaled 22,200 billion yen (213.3 billion US dollars), the highest since the record began in 1947.

The Japanese-US trade stood at about 20,480 billion yen (198.8 billion dollars) in 2004.

The trade with China accounted for about 20 percent in Japan's total foreign trade volume, while the US share stood at about 18 percent.

The exports to the European Union marked a record 9,474 billion yen (91.9 billion dollars). Imports from the region were a record 6,208 billion yen (60.2 billion dollars).

Japan enjoyed a worldwide trade surplus of 12,010 billion yen (116.6 billion dollars) in 2004, growing 17.9 percent from the previous year.