Reliability powers our relationship with Japan

The Shahamah LNG tanker berthed at the Futtsu gas-fired thermal power plant in Japan. Picture: Bloomberg

Japan is Australia’s closest partner in Asia, with the relationship considered by both sides to be a “quasi alliance”.

It’s a partnership underpinned by shared values, geography and concerns about China. It’s also one that’s founded on Japan’s need for energy security, and Australia’s ability to dependably supply the LNG and coal that it needs.

Japan’s ambassador to Australia Shingo Yamagami hammers the point regularly: if Australia’s energy trade with Japan was disrupted, the lights would literally go off in Tokyo.

It’s an unthinkable proposition, but one which would become a reality if the Greens had their way.

Japan is the least energy self-sufficient country in the OECD, producing only 10 per cent of its power from domestic sources.

Australia supplies about 40 per cent of Japan’s LNG and two-thirds of its thermal coal, in a combined energy trade worth about $67bn a year.

Japan is also leading the global race towards a hydrogen-powered future, with Australian support.

If it wins the technological challenge, both countries will be at the centre of a green energy revolution. But on Japan’s best estimates, the technology won’t produce cost-competitive energy for at least 30 years. So Australian LNG, in particular, will be needed by Japan in increasing volumes until 2050 and probably beyond.

Australia needs to maintain, indeed reaffirm, the nation’s commitment to ensuring Japan’s energy security.

Energy policy changes that cause uncertainty in Tokyo risk undermining the solemn partnership between the countries.