Japan LNG imports: diversified suppliers, thin stocks

Japan LNG imports totalled about 65.9 million tonnes in 2025, making Japan the world's second largest buyer after China, according to GIIGNL. Japan has almost no domestic gas, so LNG supplies nearly all the gas it burns in power plants and city gas networks. Unlike most Asian importers, it is well diversified: Australia supplied about 40% of its LNG in 2025 and Malaysia about 15%, and only 6.3% came through the Strait of Hormuz, 5.3% from Qatar and 1% from the UAE, per Ministry of Finance data reported by S&P Global.

The weak point is not supply but storage. METI said on 10 March 2026 that power and gas companies held nearly 4 million tonnes of LNG, about a year of Hormuz imports but only around three weeks of total imports. LNG cannot be stockpiled like crude, so any disruption on the routes Japan does use, above all the Australian lanes through Indonesian waters via the Lombok Strait and the Southeast Asian lanes across the South China Sea, would hit within weeks. The 2026 war tested the exposure indirectly: Japan lost little Qatari gas but had to compete with Asian buyers who lost much more.

Key numbers

How the dependency works

Japanese LNG is bought mostly by utilities under long-term contracts, with JERA, the joint venture of TEPCO and Chubu Electric, as the world's largest single buyer, and Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas as the main city gas importers. Cargoes arrive at more than 30 receiving terminals, most of them owned by the utilities themselves.

The sources are close and mostly outside the Gulf. Australian cargoes from the North West Shelf, Gorgon, Ichthys and Queensland projects sail north through Indonesian waters, often via Lombok and Makassar rather than Malacca. Malaysian and Bruneian LNG sails a few days across the South China Sea. US cargoes cross the Pacific from the Gulf Coast via the Panama Canal or come around from the Atlantic. See natural gas: producers and importers.

Why it exists

Japan has no pipeline connections and almost no gas of its own, so LNG was the only way to use gas at scale. Dependence jumped after the 2011 Fukushima accident, when the nuclear fleet was shut and LNG imports rose to a record 87 MT by 2014; Qatar boosted supplies to Japan in that period. As reactors restarted, LNG demand fell back and Japan let more than 7 MTPA of Qatari contracts expire in 2021, which is why Hormuz exposure was low when the 2026 war began.

Risks and disruption scenarios

The 2026 war hit Japan through price and competition rather than volume. Asian buyers that lost Qatari supply bid for the same Atlantic and Pacific cargoes, and Japan's total imports from the Gulf, across all products, fell 64% between April 2025 and April 2026, per the International Trade Centre. JERA said in August 2026 that it had secured enough LNG for the high-demand months of August to October and had sharply cut its purchases from Qatar.

The remaining risks are structural: stocks that cover only a few weeks, dependence on Australian projects that face their own outages and domestic reservation rules, a winter cold snap during a tight market, and any disruption in the Southeast Asian straits that carry most of Japan's LNG.

Diversification efforts

• New contracts outside the Gulf. JERA signed a 20-year deal with Petronas for up to 2 MTPA from 2028 and plans to raise US purchases to as much as 5.5 MTPA.
• Qatari supply as insurance. JERA signed a 27-year, 3 MTPA agreement with QatarEnergy on 3 February 2026, starting in 2028, and a trilateral emergency supply framework with METI and QatarEnergy.
• Nuclear restarts. TEPCO restarted Kashiwazaki-Kariwa unit 6 in February 2026, bringing the active fleet to 15 reactors; the EIA estimates one such unit displaces about 1.3 MT of LNG a year.
• Regional swaps. JERA and KOGAS signed an agreement on 14 March 2026 to explore cargo swaps using each other's terminals.
• Strategic buffer LNG. METI's scheme keeps government-backed cargoes available for emergencies.

Historical incidents

What to watch

• METI weekly LNG inventory data for power utilities.
• Ministry of Finance monthly trade data on LNG imports by origin.
• Nuclear restarts approved by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
• JKM spot prices and competition from other Asian buyers during winter.
• Outages at Australian LNG plants, Japan's largest single source.

FAQ

Where does Japan get its LNG? Mostly from Australia, which supplied about 40% in 2025, and Malaysia, about 15%, per GIIGNL. The United States, Russia's Sakhalin 2, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Oman and Qatar supply most of the rest. Only 6.3% came through the Strait of Hormuz.

How much LNG does Japan import? About 65.9 million tonnes in 2025, second only to China. That is well below the record 87 MT of 2014, after the Fukushima accident shut the nuclear fleet.

Was Japan affected by the Hormuz closure? Less than most Asian importers, because Qatar and the UAE supplied only 6.3% of its LNG. But the loss of Gulf supply to other buyers raised prices and competition for the cargoes Japan relies on, and its total imports from the Gulf fell 64% between April 2025 and April 2026.

How much LNG does Japan keep in storage? Nearly 4 million tonnes in March 2026, according to METI, equal to about a year of Hormuz imports but only around three weeks of total imports. LNG is hard to store for long, which makes Japan's security depend on continuous deliveries.