ABSTRACT
For resource-poor but highly industrialized and economically developed Japan, energy security is not a new issue. Indeed, part of the reason that Japan colonised Asian nations and went to war was due to perceived threats to its energy supplies. As Japan began to grow economically in the post-war period, so too did its requirements for energy, and it secured them through diplomatically crafted partnerships, even with former enemies such as Australia. During the two oil crises of the 1970s, Japan’s dependence on external energy supplies, especially oil, became more apparent than ever. Japan’s GDP dipped and commodity prices soared; Japan and its people plunged into economic hardship. In response, Japan improved relations with the Arab world to ensure the flow of oil and also took a number of domestic policy measures: reducing its energy consumption, passing a stockpiling law, and developing new technologies for alternative sources. Energy security has since become a central long-term foreign policy concern. During most of the 1980s and 1990s all went rather well. Even at the time of the 1990-1991 Gulf War, no serious supply shortages or major price hikes occurred as oil stockpiles were greater than even recommended by the International Energy Agency (IEA).1
