During Japanese economic growth process，foreign trade has played an important role and undergone corresponding structural changes in relation to the economic stages. This paper tries to demonstrate some intrinsic relationship between the structural changes of foreign trade and economic growth in each stage，effects of the structural adjustments and institutional connotations beneath those structural changes. Furthermore，it sums up several enlightment for China’s economy which seems to be alike at the similar stage of Japan in the past and needs structural adjustments for foreign trade characterized by processing trade after development of two decades.