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LNG

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 challenging Japan's LNG dominance. What does that mean for 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.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline along the Dalton Highway near Stevens Village, Alaska
ASIA PACIFIC
May 31, 2025
Trump officials set for talks with Asia leaders on Alaska energy
Foreign officials from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, India and the United Arab Emirates are expected to be included in the talks.
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.
Japan may offer cooperation on shipbuilding expertise and an Alaska natural gas project as part of trade talks with the United States.
BUSINESS / Economy
May 26, 2025
Japan touts ships expertise and LNG investment, with tariff talks key
There is rising momentum in the negotiations as the U.S. tariffs threaten to drag Japan’s economy into a technical recession ahead of the Upper House election.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines President and CEO Takeshi Hashimoto speaks during an interview in Tokyo in April.
BUSINESS
May 23, 2025
Japanese gas tanker giant sees difficulty buying Chinese vessels
Washington has issued a flurry of measures since President Donald Trump took office aimed at curbing China’s maritime dominance and reviving its own flagging shipbuilding industry.
Mitsui OSK Lines' owned and managed North Moon, North Ocean and North Light LNG vessels have been included in a new sanctions package targeting Russia's shadow fleet.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 21, 2025
Mitsui OSK assessing EU sanction impact on its LNG vessels
MOL's owned and managed North Moon, North Ocean and North Light LNG vessels were included in a new sanctions package.
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.
Jera, the world's biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, sees U.S. President Donald Trump's pet project in Alaska one of the promising procurement sources.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 28, 2025
Japan’s top gas buyer mulls procuring LNG from Alaska export project
"We see Alaska as one of the promising procurement sources,” Naohiro Maekawa, an executive officer at Jera, said at a news conference on Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump has touted the $44 billion Alaska liquefied natural gas project, which would deliver gas from the state's North Slope fields via a 1,300 kilometer pipeline for domestic use and send it to customers in Asia as LNG, bypassing the Panama Canal.
WORLD
Apr 25, 2025
U.S. expected to press Japan and South Korea for support of Alaska LNG project
The $44 billion Alaska liquefied natural gas project would send gas to customers in Asia as LNG, bypassing the Panama Canal.
Japan has started discussing specific measures to expand liquefied natural gas imports from the United States to reduce its trade surplus, as demanded by Washington.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2025
Japan mulls expanding imports of LNG from the U.S. for tariff negotiations
In 2024, Japan imported ¥542.6 billion of LNG from the U.S.
An LNG tanker is guided by tug boats in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, on April 14, 2022. The European Union is looking at ways to make it easier for U.S. gas exports to comply with its methane emissions rules.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 21, 2025
EU explores tweaking methane rules for U.S. gas to help trade talks
The European Commission is looking at using flexibilities in how it applies the bloc's methane rules, which could benefit U.S. liquefied natural gas exporters, sources say.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters at his official residence in Tokyo on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 20, 2025
No concessions over food safety in Japan-U.S. talks, Ishiba says
The prime minister also said that expanding LNG imports could be used as a bargaining chip.
A woman looks at cranes and shipping containers from an observation platform at Pyeongtaek port in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 2.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 9, 2025
Trump optimistic after call about tariffs with South Korea
South Korea's trade minister is traveling to Washington to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer for tariff negotiations.
Gladstone, Australia, long reliant on fossil fuel exports, is now struggling to reinvent itself as the world shifts toward clean energy, with political uncertainty and economic challenges clouding its prospects.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2025
Cleaning up a giant coal and gas port isn’t easy
Gladstone is now one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel ports thanks to decades of voracious global demand for steelmaking coal and gas.
Oil pipelines in Alaska. U.S. President Donald Trump wants Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to join a $44 billion natural gas export project.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2025
Alaska governor to brief Trump on Asia gas push as tariffs bite
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is winding up a trip through Asia where he has been seeking investors and long-term buyers.
A CPC Corporation logo in Taipei. The energy giant on Thursday signed a letter of intent to buy liquefied natural gas from the U.S. state of Alaska, government officials said.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 21, 2025
Taiwan signals intent to buy Alaskan natural gas
Alaskan natural gas "can meet our needs and ensure our energy security," said Taiwan President Lai Ching-te.
Officials from the state-run Alaska Gasline Development Corporation and development partner Glenfarne Group want to transport natural gas south from Alaska's remote north via a $44 billion 1,300-kilometer pipeline, to be shipped as liquefied natural gas to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2025
Alaskan officials to seek investors in Japan as Trump touts LNG
Japanese energy firms have yet to commit, with cost being a focal point.
Oil pipelines in Alaska. Although the Alaska LNG project has been planned for decades, it faces headwinds from its large price tag and mammoth scale.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 6, 2025
Trump touts plans to spur mammoth Alaska gas export project
Japan, South Korea and other countries want to partner with the U.S. and invest in "a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska," the U.S. president said.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline along the Dalton Highway in Stevens Village, Alaska, on Sep. 19, 2024
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 5, 2025
Trump says Japan and South Korea want to partner in Alaska pipeline
Japan, South Korea and other countries want to partner with the United States in a "gigantic" natural gas pipeline in Alaska, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, claiming they would invest "trillions of dollars each."
A liquefied natural gas plant operated by Sakhalin Energy is seen at Prigorodnoye on the Pacific island of Sakhalin, Russia, in July 2021.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 24, 2025
Three years into Ukraine war, Japan struggles to ensure steady LNG supply
Fierce global competition for liquefied natural gas has led to spikes in electricity and gas bills, which heavily weigh on the finances of Japanese households.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?