Japan Concerns with Its Energy
As a month have passed since the United States and Israel started attacking Iran, Japan eventually appears to be suffering from energy shortage. Although government of Japan has been making effort to stabilize gasoline price or secure alternative route to obtain energy resources, they are not working very well. Japan reveals its inherent vulnerability to securing its own energy. Japan is supposed to have one of the biggest oil reserves in the world, amounting to 470 million barrels, which corresponds to its domestic oil consumption for 254 days. It depends over 90 percent of its crude oil to be supplied from the Middle East, which needs to pass the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is effectively blocked by Iran since the war started. Not only oil but liquified natural gas (LNG) to Japan cannot go through the strait. Sanae Takaichi government began releasing national oil reserve on March 23 rd . To keep gasoline price at 170 yen per litter, the governmen...