Oil & Gas

Japan is intensifying its efforts to gain approval from local authorities for the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, the world's largest, located north of Tokyo. According to a report from the Japanese newspaper Niigata Nippo, next week, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ken Saito, is expected to request approval from the local governor of Niigata prefecture to restart the power plant.

Following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan shut down all its nuclear power plants that had undergone rigorous safety checks and inspections. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has been offline since 2012, and in 2021, the Nuclear Regulation Authority banned the plant's operator, utility Tepco, from operating the facility due to safety breaches.

The regulator lifted the operational ban on Kashiwazaki-Kariwa in December 2023, clearing the path for the restart, pending approvals from the Niigata prefecture, the city of Kashiwazaki, and the village of Kariwa.

Japan is reintroducing nuclear power as a key energy source to bolster its energy security in response to the energy crisis, which has led to surging fossil fuel prices. The resource-poor country, which needs to import about 90% of its energy requirements, reversed its nuclear energy policy at the end of 2022 as its energy import bill soared amid the energy crisis and record-high LNG prices.

In December 2022, the Japanese government confirmed a new policy for nuclear energy, which it had largely abandoned since the Fukushima disaster. A panel of experts under the Japanese Ministry of Industry also decided to allow the development of new nuclear reactors and to permit available reactors to operate beyond the current 60-year limit.

The restarts of nuclear reactors, high natural gas inventories, and increased renewable power generation have contributed to multi-year lows in Japan's LNG imports in recent months.