ABSTRACT
Petroleum is the most crucial of all the essential materials that Japan cannot obtain from domestic sources. Without petroleum Japan could not operate its modern industrial economy. In 1995 oil accounted for over half (57 percent) of all primary energy consumed in Japan ( World Oil Trends 1996, 20). The cost of petroleum imports far exceeds the amount paid for any other imported fuel, foodstuff, or raw material. For ten of the eleven years 1974–84, the cost of oil imports exceeded one-third of Japan’s total import bill, as shown in Table 4.1.
