Japan has announced a 1.17 trillion yen package today to ease energy prices in the country as part of an overall 2.7 trillion yen package to combat the rising cost of living in the country.

• The budget will in part be used to subside gasoline prices.
• “Uncertainty about the outlook is rising, mainly because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has destabilised crude oil and commodity prices,” Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said.
• Japan is heavily reliant on energy imports which has made the higher cost environment more challenging for the country than other nations able to ramp up domestic supply.
• In April, crude oil imports jumped 99.3 percent to 1.2 trillion yen, up for the 13th straight month. LNG and coal imports rocketed 151.6 percent and 198.6 percent, respectively.
• Japan is aiming for a gradual phase-out of Russian fossil fuels but has not announced timelines given the difficulty to do so.
• In 2021, Russia accounted for 4% of Japan’s crude oil imports and 9% of its natural gas imports.