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.
Photo: Reuters
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.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS