JAPAN'S exports jumped 40 percent in April, rising for a fifth straight month, fueled by brisk overseas demand for vehicles and high-tech goods in a fresh sign that the global economy is recovering.

Led by shipments of vehicles and semiconductors, exports rose to 5.9 trillion yen (US$65 billion), the Japanese Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

Automobile exports more than doubled from a year earlier, while semiconductor shipments rose 35.5 percent.

"The figures underlined a steady recovery in the global economy," said Hiroshi Watanabe, an economist at Daiwa Institute of Research.

"It is heartening to see Japanese car exports sharply up in every key region."

Robust global demand, particularly in Asia, is feeding a turnaround in Japan's economy offsetting weak demand and falling prices at home.

Japan's exports to Asia alone account for 56 percent of total shipments.

Watanabe said a recovery in global auto sales, which plummeted during the global economic crisis in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, was vital to Japan's economic recovery.

"The auto industry is one of the key pillars of the Japanese economy," he said.

"With recovering demand, auto makers can boost capital investment and increase employment, stimulating domestic demand."

Recent economic signals from Japan have been fairly upbeat. Gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 4.9 percent in the first quarter, the fourth straight quarter of expansion on the back of soaring exports to China.

Yesterday's trade figures showed that United States-bound exports rose 34.5 percent, while exports to Asia surged 45.3 percent in April.

Exports to China alone jumped 41.4 percent, while shipments to the European Union grew 19.8 percent.

Europe-bound exports rose for a fifth consecutive month, but that may change as the Greek fiscal crisis widens.