The surplus with the United States rose a more modest 20 percent to 577 billion yen.

That surplus will rise somewhat for a few years and then drop.

The nation's agricultural surplus, however, rose nearly $50 million.

Last week, Tokyo reported that the overall surplus rose in April for the 13th consecutive month to $9 billion.

The surplus for the first two months of this year rose to $810 million from $683 million, it said.

The surplus, which excludes interest payments, rose to $3.1 billion last month, compared with $2.1 billion in February.

The Administration now believes that the surplus will rise sharply in a few years and total $200 billion over the next five years.

The surplus with Asia rose 43 percent from May 1990, to $2.4 billion.

West Germany's surplus, by contrast, rose to 6.6 percent from 4.5 percent in the same four years.

The surplus has now risen on a year-on-year basis for 11 months in a row.