Japan Country Report

Japan is a small island nation in Eastern Asia. It consists of several thousand islands spanning across a land area of approximately 377,914 square kilometres and most of its land area is mountainous and thickly forested. It is the world’s second largest economy after the United States with real GDP of about US$4815 billion (in 2000 US$ terms) in 2009. Its population was about 128 million people with a per-capita income of US$37,766 in 2009. Japan possesses a modest amount of indigenous energy resources and imports almost all of its crude oil, coal and natural gas requirements to sustain economic activity. At the end of 2010, proven energy reserves included around 44 million barrels of oil and 738 billion cubic feet of natural gas. At the end of 2009, proven reserves of coal were 345 million tonnes. Japan’s total primary energy consumption was 469.5 Mtoe in 2009. Oil represented the largest share at 42.7 percent, coal was second at 21.6 percent, followed by natural gas (17.2 percent), and nuclear energy (15.5 percent). In 2009, net imports of energy accounted for about 87 percent of Japan’s total primary energy consumption. With limited indigenous energy sources, Japan imported almost 99 percent of its oil, 99 percent of its coal and 96 percent of its gas. Japan is the world’s largest importer of coal: steam coal for power generation, pulp and paper and cement production and coking coal for steel production. Domestic 130 natural gas consumption is met almost entirely by imports of LNG. Natural gas is mainly used for electricity generation, followed by reticulated city gas and industrial fuels. In 2009, primary natural gas consumption was 80.7 Mtoe. Japan has 281GW of installed electricity generating capacity and generated about 1041 TWh of electricity in 2009. Generation is comprised of thermal (coal, natural gas and oil) at 63 percent, nuclear (27 percent) and hydro (7 percent), with geothermal, solar and wind taking up the remainder.