Hello, I'm David Plott, Emlex's managing editor for Asia, coming to you today from Hong Kong.

If you're new to Emlex's ongoing series of podcasts, we're happy to welcome you for the first time.

And if you listen to our podcast before, welcome back.

Today we're headed to Japan.

We'll be taking a look at a story that starts with an unusual

development in the normally placid world of Japanese antitrust. That was a move by the Japan

Fair Trade Commission to shake up the market for liquefied natural gas. It came in the form

of a report published in June on the lack of free competition in the LNG market.

Japan is the world's largest LNG importer, but the structure of its LNG market is leaving

both the government and importers of the gas unhappy. That's a situation that's about to change.

Here with me today to talk about Japan's LNG shakeup is MLEC's senior

reporter, Satchiko Sakamaki. Welcome to this podcast, Satchiko. Thanks, David. Satchiko, what are the

main issues in Japan's LNG market that the JFTC's report raised? Well, Japan's LNG market has some pretty distinct characteristics.

Japan is an island nation, so it's unlike Europe, for example, where gas is delivered through

pipelines.

For export to Japan, natural gas is cooled to an extremely low temperature to liquefy it,

and it's transported in special tankers.

When it arrives at the port, it's then turned back into a gas before being piped power stations

and households.

This all cost a lot of money, of course. So because of those capital costs

and Japan's need for energy security, most energy imports take place under long-term contracts.

They are typically of 10 or 20 years duration. Now, the Japan Fair Trade Commission has

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