Russia increases LNG exports to Japan (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
Japan, one of the world’s largest buyers of liquefied natural gas (LNG), increased its LNG imports by 6% year-on-year to 4.718 million tons in June 2026, Russian propaganda agency Interfax reported.
Since the beginning of the year, Japan has reduced its LNG imports by 4% to 30.88 million tons.
Japan increased its LNG imports from Russia by 52% year-on-year to 382,000 tons in June, while year-to-date deliveries of Russian LNG to Japan rose slightly by 0.3% to 2.905 million tons.
Interfax reported that Japanese buyers are consistently purchasing Russian gas under long-term contracts to avoid volatile spot market deals.
Deliveries of U.S. LNG to Japan surged 51% year-on-year to 410,000 tons in June, although year-to-date imports from the United States fell 7% to 2.507 million tons.
Only two tankers carrying a combined 126,000 tons arrived from the Middle East, a sharp drop compared to the 356,000 tons delivered during the same period last year.
Japan also received another shipment of Russian crude oil totaling 160,000 tons in June.
In total, Japan imported 7.63 million tons of crude oil in June, with countries in the Middle East serving as its largest collective supplier.
Japanese refiner Taiyo Oil resumed purchases of Russian crude in May, 2026 as Tokyo looks for alternatives to Middle Eastern supplies amid growing risks to global energy shipments.
Taiyo, Japan’s fourth-largest oil refiner, made a spot purchase of crude from Russia’s Sakhalin-2 project in the Far East.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and
Google News