Resource-poor Japan courts Australia 50 years on
Tokyo | When 300 Japanese business titans and the country’s trade minister descend on Melbourne this weekend, it will be a reminder that not a lot has changed in half a century.
Resource-poor Japan still needs Australian gas to keep the lights on in Tokyo and other major cities. It now wants other things as well – renewable energy sources and access to critical minerals such as lithium to power its electric vehicles.
History repeats. The Australian Financial Review’s front page on April 7, 1972, all about Japan and gas.
On April 7, 1972, The Australian Financial Review ran a front page story headlined: ”Japan’s needs cited”. The source of the story was an interview with Hiroshi Anzai, the then president of Tokyo Gas Corp, talking about Japan’s “very considerable” interest in Australian natural gas. He said Japan wanted to establish $800 million in projects in Australia to export at least 5 million tonnes of LNG a year to Japan.
At the time, Australia was regarded as the most important new source of natural gas for Japan after the Soviet Union.
More than 50 years later, Tokyo Gas was back on page one of The Australian Financial Review on Friday with a similar message. Michiake Hirose, who was chairman of the company until recently, said a stable supply of Australian LNG was critical for 6 million of his customers in Tokyo alone.
Japan sources more than 40 per cent of LNG from Australia. It is becoming increasingly concerned about the reliability of this supply, particularly under Labor’s green energy policies.
Diversification is problematic for Japan at a time when LNG investment is tapering off and unprecedented risks in supply from other exporters, not to mention competition from countries like China for resources in
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