Trade between Japan and China grew 12.7 percent in the January-June period from a year earlier to $43.651 billion, marking a record high for the first half of a fiscal year, the Japan External Trade Organization said Thursday.

Japan's exports to China increased 15.3 percent to $15.540 billion, while imports from China rose 11.3 percent to $28.111 billion.

"Sino-Japanese trade has been expanding primarily in the form of processing trade by firms that have their production bases in China," JETRO said in a report .