Senior reporter Clare Pennington interviews ICIS senior data analyst Fei Xu and senior Asia LNG reporter Paula Xiao to unpick what is going on in Japan’s LNG market.

Japan is one of the world's largest LNG buyers, surpassed only by China in recent years and still vying for top spot as the world’s largest LNG importer. But in the long term, some buyers think Japan might be overpositioned, ploughing too much money into its LNG purchase power. 

Both China and Japan are firmly over-contracted at the moment, but Japan’s expiring contracts will place the latter in an under-contracted position by 2028. ICIS expects Japanese companies to sign more long-term contracts in the coming 2 years to fill this gap. But with wider energy investment plans, including in nuclear, how should Japan approach this changing market?