Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry: closely monitoring the impact of the situation in the Middle East on prices, currently no specific plans to release oil reserves.

Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akazawa Ryosei stated that he is closely monitoring how the situation in the Middle East and trends in the energy market will affect prices. The government has established an energy countermeasure headquarters and will take measures to ensure that the impact on Japan's economic activities is minimized. Regarding Qatar's closure of the world's largest liquefied natural gas export facility after a drone attack in Iran, Akazawa Ryosei stated that Japan imports about 4% of its liquefied natural gas from Qatar. Japan currently has enough LNG reserves to meet three weeks of demand, so it is not expected to experience a supply interruption in the short term. It is not expected that electricity or natural gas prices will immediately rise. There is currently no specific plan to release oil reserves.