According to a recent report in the Financial Times, Japanese companies have set off a global trading boom totaling 21 billion US dollars since 2023 to strengthen control over natural gas supply. The core drivers and strategic goals of this wave of large-scale investments include dealing with the risk of geopolitical conflict: Japan, the world's second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas, is striving to ensure its own national energy security through diversified investments due to severe turmoil in the global energy market due to the conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine. Heavy investment in US shale resources: This $21 billion capital is mainly invested in shale gas resources along the US Gulf Coast. This not only responds to Japan's energy security drive, but is also highly compatible with Donald Trump's goal of pursuing America's “energy dominance.” Aiming at the blue ocean of AI data centers: In addition to replacing traditional supply chains and coping with falling reserves in Asia, Japanese companies also have greater commercial ambitions — trying to embed themselves in the core industrial chain of the US building electricity for AI data centers. • Building a bridge to the Asian market: Japanese companies hope to play a “bridge” role in this process and further sell liquefied natural gas obtained from the US to other developing Asian markets. This huge capital move marks that the Japanese public and private sectors are comprehensively promoting a more active and long-term global resource card strategy against the backdrop of a conflict between global green transformation and traditional fossil energy security.

According to a recent report in the Financial Times, Japanese companies have set off a global trading boom totaling 21 billion US dollars since 2023 to strengthen control over natural gas supply. The core drivers and strategic goals of this wave of large-scale investments include dealing with the risk of geopolitical conflict: Japan, the world's second-largest importer of liquefied natural gas, is striving to ensure its own national energy security through diversified investments due to severe turmoil in the global energy market due to the conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine. Heavy investment in US shale resources: This $21 billion capital is mainly invested in shale gas resources along the US Gulf Coast. This not only responds to Japan's energy security drive, but is also highly compatible with Donald Trump's goal of pursuing America's “energy dominance.” Aiming at the blue ocean of AI data centers: In addition to replacing traditional supply chains and coping with falling reserves in Asia, Japanese companies also have greater commercial ambitions — trying to embed themselves in the core industrial chain of the US building electricity for AI data centers. • Building a bridge to the Asian market: Japanese companies hope to play a “bridge” role in this process and further sell liquefied natural gas obtained from the US to other developing Asian markets. This huge capital move marks that the Japanese public and private sectors are comprehensively promoting a more active and long-term global resource card strategy against the backdrop of a conflict between global green transformation and traditional fossil energy security.