"Japan has a stake in Sakhalin 2, which is contributing to securing long-term, stable and low-priced supply of LNG. It is an extremely important project for Japan's energy security," Kishida told parliament.

Japan's Sakhalin Oil and Gas Development (SODECO) owns a 30% stake in the Sakhalin-1 project from which Exxon has said it would exit. Japex owns 15.285% in SODECO.

A powerful earthquake off the eastern coast of Japan did not cause any issues of safety concern at the three nuclear power plants in the area, including the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the country’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today.

Japan also intends to work on renewables and nuclear power in a bid to further diversify its energy sources, as part of its response to the G7 joint statement, which calls for reducing Russian energy dependency in phases, Hagiuda said.

In response to the tougher sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 27 ordered nuclear deterrent forces on high alert, further escalating tension.

«Сегодня важно диверсифицировать традиционное энергетическое сотрудничество с ориентиром на его «озеленение». Приглашаю японских инвесторов принять участие в развитии водородных кластеров в России», – отметил Максим Решетников.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Mitsubishi FBR Systems (MFBR) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with TerraPower of the USA to cooperate on the development of sodium-cooled fast reactors. TerraPower - founded by Bill Gates - is developing the Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor.

Japan has found "considerable gas shows" in a series of the country's funded drilling operations conducted by INPEX until the fiscal year 2019-20 (April-March), marking the first domestic project, which enters an exploration phase with the support of the government's geological structure surveys,

The Dec. 12 LNG stocks were well above 1.42 million mt held at the end of December last year, as well as the four-year average of 1.71 million mt at the end of that month, according to METI data.

“As an increasing number of states pursue nuclear energy, decommissioning and waste management as well as nuclear security are two components essential for its sustainable use” said Toshio Kodama, President of JAEA. “JAEA is determined to work together with the IAEA in this scheme to contribute to the international community in these two important areas.”