The total shutdown of Japan’s nuclear power industry in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster caused a more than 20% increase in liquefied natural gas imports. In 2015, the first two of the 48 Japanese nuclear units that were taken offline post-Fukushima are expected to be restarted, but it will take several years for most of the rest to come back online—and it’s likely that many nuclear units will never return to service. How much did Fukushima change Japan’s electricity sector, and how will that nation’s fledgling nuclear reboot affect LNG imports, not just from current suppliers like Australia, Qatar and Malaysia but new and prospective suppliers in the US and Canada? Today we begin a look at the electric industry in Japan, the future of nuclear power and LNG use there, and the Japanese-led effort to change how LNG is priced.
