Japan is considering offering support for a US$44 billion gas pipeline in Alaska as it seeks to court US President Donald Trump and forestall potential trade friction, three officials familiar with the matter said.
Officials in Tokyo said Trump might raise the project, which he has said is key for US prosperity and security, when he meets Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for the first time in Washington as soon as next week, the sources said.
Japan has doubts about the viability of the proposed 1,287km pipeline — intended to link fields in Alaska’s north to a port in the south, where gas would be liquefied and shipped to Asian customers — because of the overall costs of the gas relative to other sources.
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Japan is prepared to offer to explore a deal if asked, the officials said.
Tokyo might include such a commitment among other concessions, such as buying more US gas and increasing defense spending and manufacturing investment in the US, to reduce the US$56 billion bilateral trade deficit and stave off the threat of tariffs, one of the people said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the meeting.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was premature to discuss the matter.
Details of Japan’s possible interest in the Alaska project have not been previously reported. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Among the executive orders Trump signed when he took office on Monday last week was one promising to unleash Alaska’s resource potential, “including the sale and transportation of Alaskan LNG [liquefied natural gas] to other regions of the United States and allied nations within the Pacific region.”
Trump has framed the gas project as a win for Alaska and US allies in Asia seeking a stable source of energy, but Japan already has plentiful access to LNG, and its companies traded about 38 million tonnes last year, more than half its domestic consumption. Still, the Alaska pipeline could help Japan diversify supplies away from riskier sources like Russia, which accounts for about one-tenth of its gas imports, and the Middle East.
On Friday, Ishiba told the National Diet that while Japan needed to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, “there are things that we should request from the US in terms of stable energy supply.”
He did not give specifics nor mention the Alaska project.
The officials said that Ishiba would not be able to make firm commitments on LNG, including investing in the Alaska project, when he meets Trump.
Any deal would have to offer reasonable pricing and flexibility, including allowing Japanese buyers to resell LNG they purchase, a fourth official said.
Trump has mooted a range of tariffs on foreign goods, but revealed little about his approach to economic and security ties with Japan since his return to the White House. However, the subject has dominated political discourse in Japan, a key US ally and top foreign investor, which was rattled during Trump’s first term by his tariffs on steel imports and his demands for Tokyo to pay more to host US troops.
Media attention in Tokyo has centered on whether Ishiba, who became prime minister last year and heads a minority government, can replicate the bond that former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe forged with Trump during his first term.
Without such familiarity with Trump’s inner circle, Ishiba’s administration has sought counsel from US lawmakers and policy experts with ties to Japan and Trump. They include US Senator Bill Hagerty, a former US ambassador to Tokyo, and Kenneth Weinstein, the Japan chair at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.
Weinstein said that he had encouraged Tokyo to deepen energy partnerships with Washington and that the Alaska project warranted serious consideration.
Ado Machida, a Tokyo-based businessman who served on Trump’s transition team after his 2016 election victory, said an offer by Japan to buy more LNG and support the Alaska LNG pipeline would be “probably the easiest” way to win over Trump.
“Trump’s going to want to know what Japan will do for him,” said Machida, adding that he had spoken to Japanese government officials about the proposal.
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