{"id":10261,"date":"2026-04-23T00:53:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T00:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/10261\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T00:53:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T00:53:32","slug":"not-easy-japan-mulls-building-its-own-lng-carriers-amid-iran-energy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/10261\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not easy\u2019: Japan mulls building its own LNG carriers amid Iran energy crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the US-Israel war on Iran <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/global-economy\/article\/3347045\/red-sea-fix-china-bound-oil-tankers-tap-saudi-plan-bypass-strait-hormuz?module=top_story&amp;pgtype=section?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">strains global energy supplies<\/a>, Japan is discussing reviving domestic production of liquefied natural gas carriers for the first time in more than half a decade to bolster its national security.The move would see Japanese shipbuilders return to a market that is currently dominated by China and South Korea, as Tokyo looks to revitalise its maritime sector and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/business\/china-business\/article\/3346729\/south-korea-and-japan-bear-brunt-global-stock-sell-offs-amid-oil-shock?module=top_story&amp;pgtype=section?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">shore up its energy security<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Japan\u2019s shipbuilding working group \u2013 comprising industry experts and government officials \u2013 discussed proposals for restarting domestic LNG carrier construction at a Thursday meeting hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, according to local trade media outlet Kaiji Press.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The nation\u2019s two top shipbuilders \u2013 Imabari Shipbuilding and Oshima Shipbuilding \u2013 are in talks over cooperating on the project, which would see Japan build its first LNG carriers since 2019, Kyodo News reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Japan has a chance to break into the LNG carrier market given its strong shipbuilding sector and large-scale LNG imports, according to Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at shipbroking and shipping services group Banchero Costa.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">However, restarting LNG carrier production will not be easy, as it is a very niche and technologically advanced sector, he warned.<\/p>\n<p>The market for LNG carriers <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3321734\/trumps-curbs-chinas-shipbuilding-edge-spur-south-korean-investments-asean?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">is currently totally dominated<\/a> by South Korea and China, with South Korean yards accounting for 86 per cent of vessels delivered between 2020 and 2025 and Chinese yards delivering the remaining 14 per cent, Leszczynski said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the US-Israel war on Iran strains global energy supplies, Japan is discussing reviving domestic production of liquefied&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[923,8848,12,191,189,8850,8849,1072,8,188,190,592,83,8851,8853,4760,8854,657,446,8852,4363],"class_list":{"0":"post-10261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-banchero-costa","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-economy-of-japan","13":"tag-hudong-zhonghua-shipbuilding","14":"tag-imabari-shipbuilding","15":"tag-infrastructure","16":"tag-japan","17":"tag-japans-economy","18":"tag-japanese-economy","19":"tag-kyodo-news","20":"tag-lng","21":"tag-ministry-of-land","22":"tag-oshima-shipbuilding","23":"tag-persian-gulf","24":"tag-ralph-leszczynski","25":"tag-south-korea","26":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","27":"tag-transport-and-tourism","28":"tag-yomiuri-shimbun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}