Fresh geopolitical volatility in the Middle East has pushed Japan to expand its emergency oil release, announcing an additional 20 days-worth of national petroleum reserves will enter the market starting next month, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi confirmed Friday. The move builds on the first round of reserve releases launched in mid-March, as Tokyo continues to shore up energy supply stability amid lingering doubts over the safety of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The announcement came during a cabinet-level meeting focused on responding to shifting Middle Eastern developments, held nearly two months after a sudden outbreak of regional conflict in late February effectively shut down the critical chokepoint, which handles the vast majority of Japan’s crude oil imports. Despite a recently brokered two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran, Takaichi noted that Tokyo cannot yet count on a full, smooth return to pre-conflict shipping operations through the strait, one of the world’s most vital energy transit routes.
Japan first began offloading approximately 50 days of stored reserves to domestic and global markets starting March 16, a preemptive measure designed to offset potential supply disruptions following the strait closure. With this upcoming extra release, Japan will have made a total of 70 days of emergency reserves available to the market in under three months. “We will take every possible measure to ensure a stable supply of crude oil,” Takaichi told reporters following the meeting.
The prime minister added that by the time the new reserve release begins in May, Tokyo expects to source over half of its total crude oil imports through alternative shipping routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz, though she declined to specify which alternative suppliers or routes Japan is relying on for this diversification.
Japan’s energy security framework is uniquely vulnerable to disruptions in Middle Eastern oil supplies: the island nation imports more than 90 percent of its total crude oil from the region, and the overwhelming majority of those imports traverse the Strait of Hormuz. This dependency has forced successive Japanese governments to maintain large strategic petroleum stockpiles and respond quickly to any signs of disruption to global oil transit chokepoints.