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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to pledge to boost Japan's imports of liquefied natural gas from the United States in his first face-to-face meeting later this week with President Donald Trump, Japanese government sources said Wednesday. The expected proposal to be made by Ishiba, who is sitting down with Trump on Friday in Washington, would enhance energy security for resource-scarce Japan and help Tokyo align with the U.S.
president's push for boosting fossil fuel production. "It's one of the options" to win Trump over, a senior Japanese government source said. Trump, who returned to the White House in January, is known to favor bilateral deal-making and put U.
S. interests first. Ishiba, who became prime minister last October, hopes to elevate the longtime Japan-U.
S. security alliance to new heights by building a rapport with Trump. The bilateral alliance with the United States is the cornerstone of Japan's defense and security policy, and forging close ties with the sitting president is seen as a must for the prime minister.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sent energy prices surging and hurt Japan, which relies mostly on imports to satisfy domestic energy needs. It faces the challenge of securing diversified LNG suppliers over the longer term, having been heavily reliant on Australia for the energy source. Boosting LNG imports from the United States, the world's biggest producer, would help Japanese households and businesses by lowering electricity and gas bills, given that U.
S. LNG is around 10 percent cheaper than Australian, according to Japanese Finance Ministry data. When he was inaugurated on Jan.
20, Trump said, "We will drill, baby, drill," highlighting his push for fossil fuel production. Even if Ishiba broaches the idea in the forthcoming summit, however, it will be "difficult to set a specific target," a senior industry ministry official said, as details on pricing and other specific conditions would have to be worked out by private-sector companies in negotiations. Japan also gets its LNG from the Sakhalin 2 energy project in Russia's Far East, in which two Japanese firms hold a stake.
One possible scenario that would allow Japan to increase its share of U.S. LNG imports could come when long-term contracts related to the Sakhalin project end in the coming years.
However, transporting the energy source from the United States would take over a month, much longer than the few days needed to deliver it from Russia..
