Japan to keep importing Russian LNG

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told U.S. President Donald Trump during their first summit on Tuesday that Japan intends to keep importing Russian liquefied natural gas for the time being, a Japanese government source said Wednesday.

The United States had been urging Japan to end Russian energy imports to reinforce sanctions on Moscow over its full-scale war against Ukraine that began in 2022.

At the meeting with Trump in Tokyo, Takaichi, who took office on Oct 21, stressed the necessity of buying Russian-produced LNG, citing the risk of domestic power shortages if imports were stopped, the source said.

In 2024, Russian LNG accounted for 8.6 percent of Japan’s total imports of the energy source, which is mainly used for thermal power generation and city gas.

The gas comes from the Sakhalin 2 energy project in the Russian Far East, in which two Japanese firms continue to hold stakes even after British oil major Shell PLC withdrew following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Tokyo has faced criticism that payments for Russian LNG help fund Moscow’s war effort, while the European Union is set to fully suspend such purchases by the end of 2026.

Takaichi, a staunch conservative, is known for sharing hawkish views on diplomacy and security with Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022.

Abe, who pursued dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, met him 27 times during his tenure through 2020 in a bid to resolve a territorial dispute but made no progress.

Takaichi has inherited the same unresolved issue over the Russian-held, Japanese-claimed islands off Hokkaido — known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia — which continues to prevent the signing of a postwar peace treaty.