Canberra stokes Tokyo’s LNG concerns

Talks between the trading partners reveal growing tension over the potential impact on LNG flows of domestic Australian policies

Japan was the world’s largest LNG importer in 2022 and Australia the largest exporter, with the former also being the latter’s most important single market. Australia exported 80.9m t of LNG last year, of which 31.2m t, or 39%, went to Japan—accounting for 42% of Japan’s 73.6m t net imports and demonstrating the high degree of interdependence between the two Asia Pacific giants. But Canberra’s response to domestic supply concerns, combined with aggressive emission reduction efforts, has cast some doubt on Australia’s future reliability as an LNG exporter, seemingly accelerating efforts by Tokyo and Japanese utilities to ensure other potential sources of supply.   Australia’s populous east co