Higher energy imports played a role in Japan's record current-account deficit in November. But the data is a sign of a more fundamental change: Japan's three decades as one of the world's biggest exporters may be over.

From the 1980s until 2010 Japan exported more than it imported, supplying the world with electronics, machinery and other goods.

That changed in 2011, after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Japan's nuclear power plants shut down, pushing up imports of other fuel and tipping the trade balance into deficit.

Those reactors remain closed and Japan's huge fuel imports, compounded by the weak yen, are widening the trade deficit.

But even stripping out fuel, Japan would be running a meager trade surplus at best. A major factor is that Japanese companies have moved production offshore, to cheaper centers in China and elsewhere.