Trade deficit for Japan stood at 822. 2 billion yen (around 8.10 billion U.S. dollars) in June, recording the 24th consecutive month of red ink, said Japan's Finance Ministry Thursday.

Exports declined 2.0 percent from a year earlier, while imports soared 8.4 percent in June, according to the ministry.

For the first half of the year of 2014, the world's third largest economy recorded the largest ever trade deficit in the period at 7,598.4 billion yen (about 74.84 billion dollars), the ministry said in a preliminary report, in which figures were measured on a customs-cleared base.

During the half-year period, Japan's imports surged 10.0 percent on year to 42,648.2 billion yen, boosted by a drastic increase in liquefied natural gas which jumped 11.6 percent, the ministry said.

Exports, however, grew 3.2 percent to 35,049.8 billion yen due to the yen's depreciation in the same period, but failed to outweigh imports, it said.

The yen slid down 8.5 percent year-on-year against the U.S. dollar in the first half of 2014, January-June period. A weaker yen helps enlarge exports by making Japanese products cheaper overseas and boosts the value of overseas revenues in yen terms.