The NAJAS/KKC Business Speaker Series was held in Washington DC on January 18, 2018 in cooperation with the Japan-America Society of Washington, DC. Mr. Hiroyuki Tsurugi, Executive Managing Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Energy Business Unit I , Mitsui & Co. was invited as a keynote speaker.

Mr. Tsurugi described Japan’s source power mix, as laid out in a 2014 national plan as 27 per cent LNG, 26 percent coal, 23 percent renewable energy, and 21 percent nuclear. Japan depends on the Middle East for 26 percent and the Asia-Pacific region for 74 percent of its total LNG import respectively. Japanese companies, including Mitsui, are major players in LNG and are participating in diversifying Japan’s natural gas sources through U.S. investments. The scale of the U.S. investments is large. He stated that regarding Japan’s investment in LNG projects or participation in the liquefaction capacity in the U.S., there are currently three projects; namely Cameron LNG by Mitsui and Mitsubishi, Cove Point LNG by Sumitomo and Tokyo Gas, and Freeport LNG by Chubu Electric and Osaka Gas., and the liquefaction capacity of the three projects combined totals 30 million tons per annum. From the Cameron LNG project, Mitsui plans to export around 4 million tons per annum of LNG from 2019, mainly to markets in Japan and the Asia-Pacific.

At the panel discussion, Ms. Jane Nakano, Senior Fellow of Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) highlighted the importance of the U.S. becoming a major energy exporter, saying “when it comes to the gas side, as Mr. Tsurugi eloquently highlighted, it’s very good news. I think it’s not just to Japan. I mean in this context, we’re very much focused on U.S.-Japan for a good reason but it helps many other emerging economies around the world but particularly in Asia. That’s where the demand growth is quite visible.”