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August 28, 2025
 

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GAS

A liquefied natural gas plant in Sakhalin, Russia. U.S. and Russian officials discussed energy deals on the sidelines of the Ukraine peace talks, sources said.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 26, 2025
U.S. and Russian officials discussed energy deals alongside latest Ukraine peace talks
Russia has been cut off from most international investment in its energy sector and from striking major deals due to sanctions following the Ukraine invasion.
Japan has lodged a protest with China over the latter's unilateral development of gas fields in disputed waters between both countries.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 26, 2025
Tokyo lodges protests with Beijing over gas field in East China Sea
Japan says China is unilaterally setting up drilling rigs in the area where their exclusive economic zone claims overlap.
A Pertamina fuel storage facility at Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta in 2022
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2025
Indonesia’s ‘gasoline godfather’ targeted in $18 billion graft probe
Mohammad Riza Chalid is the most audacious target to date for the current administration, as it reshuffles its energy procurement and attempts to supercharge growth.
The Bishu Maru LNG tanker, owned by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, next to the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Aug 3, 2025
How Trump is gaslighting on climate change — with Japan’s help
As the U.S. president ramps up high-polluting LNG projects, Japan is among the nations he's pressuring for investments. The economic case for the push, however, is far from clear.
The total number of gas stations across Japan as of the end of fiscal 2024 fell for the 30th consecutive year, according to the industry ministry.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 31, 2025
Number of gas stations in Japan fell for the 30th consecutive year, data shows
The total is now less than half of its peak, marked at the end of fiscal 1994, due to vehicle electrification and improved fuel efficiency.
Parliamentary affairs chiefs of the ruling and opposition parties on Wednesday at the parliament building after signing an agreement to abolish the provisional add-on gasoline tax
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025
Ruling and opposition parties agree to scrap provisional gas tax by year-end
The parties aim to enact a bill to scrap the tax at an extraordinary session of parliament expected to be convened in autumn.
Kazuhiko Shigetoku (second from left), policy chief of the Constitutional Democratic Party, speaks at a meeting of opposition party policy leaders discussing a bill to scrap the provisional add-on gasoline tax rate, on Tuesday at parliament.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 29, 2025
Eight opposition parties agree to push for extra gasoline tax to be scrapped
The opposition parties are hoping to raise public expectations for political change after the ruling coalition lost its majority in the recent Upper House election.
Opposition party policy chiefs discuss a gas bill in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 25, 2025
Move to abolish gasoline tax is LDP-Komeito coalition’s first post-election test
The minority government of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is under pressure to quickly decide on how to respond to the opposition push.
Workers build a scaffolding platform during construction at the Yamal LNG plant, operated by Novatek, in Sabetta, Russia, in August 2018.
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2025
Russia tries again to expand LNG exports upended by sanctions
Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian gas pipeline exports to Europe have dwindled, and shipping more fuel via seaborne LNG tankers provides an attractive revenue stream.
An opposition-sponsored gasoline tax cut bill is discussed in the Upper House finance committee on Saturday morning, a day before the ordinary session of parliament ends Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 21, 2025
Parliament session wraps up as Upper House skips vote on gas tax bill
On Saturday, the Upper House Committee on Financial Affairs met to discuss the bill, but the meeting ended without a vote.
Japan sees liquefied natural gas as vital to energy security.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 20, 2025
Japan seeks gas past 2050, with AI and data centers set to lift demand
The government expects a boom in artificial intelligence, data centers and semiconductor chip-making factories to revive power demand.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings will cut July electricity bills for standard households by ¥616 from the previous month to ¥8,236.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 19, 2025
Tepco to cut household electricity bills in July
Nine other major power suppliers and four major city gas providers are also likely to considerably reduce their rates.
Lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Nippon Ishin no Kai and the Democratic Party for the People submit a motion to dismiss the chairman of the House of Representatives' Financial Affairs Committee, on Tuesday at parliament.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 17, 2025
Opposition parties submit motion to dismiss Lower House panel chief
The motion to dismiss comes amid the panel chairman's refusal to hold deliberations on a bill to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate.
Investigators inspect a construction site in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward on May 28 after an explosion occurred there a day earlier.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 2, 2025
Tokyo construction site blast caused by gas cylinder buried in the ground
The gas cylinder "may have been illegally dumped a long time ago" at the site, which was a paved parking lot for about 40 years.
Tugboats assist a liquified natural gas tanker as it docks at a port in Yantai, China, in February. In 2021, China became the largest importer of LNG, and as of this year, China now has the most long-term LNG contracts.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Jun 1, 2025
China is eroding Japan's LNG dominance. How does that affect Japanese buyers?
Japanese companies have long held the leading position in the buying and trading of one of the world's key energy sources, but that era of hegemony has come to an end.
Pipelines at Jera's thermal power station in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
May 30, 2025
Japan’s top LNG importer will explore buying from Alaska
Jera, which is also the nation’s largest power producer, inked the nonbinding pact ahead of a summit in the U.S. state next week.
Nippon Yusen, Japan's biggest shipper, believes there will probably not be another decline in bookings impacted by U.S. tariffs this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 30, 2025
Top Japan shipper sees orders recovering as trade tensions ease
Nippon Yusen saw a robust recovery in container shipping orders following an easing in tensions between the United States and some of its trading partners this month.
The Japanese government will spend ¥288 billion to lower the cost of electricity and city gas by ¥3,000 for an average household from July to September.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 27, 2025
Japan to subsidize home energy bills through summer amid U.S. tariff impact
The government will spend ¥388 billion from budget reserves for the measures in its first fiscal spending in response to the Trump tariffs.
An oil refinery behind Hamadera Park in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture
JAPAN
May 17, 2025
One dead after possible gas leak at Eneos refinery
The company believes they may have inhaled hydrogen sulfide gas, according to informed sources.
A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is tugged toward a thermal power station in Futtsu, Chiba Prefecture, in 2017.
BUSINESS
May 14, 2025
Japan under pressure from U.S. to invest in Alaska LNG pipeline
Doubts over the pipeline's profitability and viability leaves Japan's participation in the $44 billion (nearly ¥6.7 trillion) project uncertain.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan Post to stop accepting some parcels for shipment to the U.S.
Japan Post's UGX will still be available for many rejected packages.
Japan aims to tighten rules for business manager visas from October
The number of foreign residents with business management residency status had reached a record 41,615 as of the end of 2024.
Tokyo releases AI-generated video of Mount Fuji erupting
A screenshot from an AI-generated video showing what could happen to Tokyo if Mount Fuji erupted
Character-crazed Japan has little appetite for Labubu
A pop-up advertisement for the newly opened Chiikawa Park in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood demonstrates how the country is chockful of cute characters — to the detriment of trends like Labubu.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

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