{"id":43060,"date":"2026-03-09T06:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=43060"},"modified":"2026-03-09T06:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T06:04:26","slug":"japan-urged-to-restart-nuclear-plants-as-iran-war-threatens-energy-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=43060","title":{"rendered":"Japan urged to restart nuclear plants as Iran war threatens energy supply"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Japan should operate all of its available nuclear power plants to offset the impact of the Iran war on electricity bills, Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of a Japanese opposition party, said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Japan relies on the Middle East for around 95% of its oil supplies and 11% of its liquefied natural gas imports, with around 70% and 6% respectively coming via the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed due to the war.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unless we make full use of nuclear power as a carbon-free power source with less dependence on overseas sources, electricity bills will inevitably rise,&#8221; Tamaki, who heads the Democratic Party for the People, said on X.<\/p>\n<p>Read: China urges US to manage differences<\/p>\n<p>New Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is also staunchly pro-nuclear, and Japan&#8217;s public is gradually becoming more supportive of nuclear power.<\/p>\n<p>Japan shut down all 54 of its nuclear power reactors &#8211; which provided roughly 30% of the country&#8217;s electricity &#8211; after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi plant nuclear meltdowns. Thirty-three remain operable, but only 15 have been restarted.<\/p>\n<p>Another nine reactors have applied for restarts, according to Japan Atomic Industrial Forum data, but their specific resumption dates are yet to be determined.<\/p>\n<p>Oil prices surged over 20% on Monday, hitting their highest in years, as the expanding US-Israeli war with Iran fuelled fears of tighter supply O\/R, with industries in Japan already reporting an impact.<\/p>\n<p>Mitsubishi Chemical 4188.T on Monday started to cut ethylene production at its plant in Ibaraki, north of Tokyo, the company said.<\/p>\n<p>With the Iran crisis widening, a Japanese lawmaker said on Sunday that the government instructed a national oil reserve site to prepare for a possible release of crude. Japan holds emergency oil reserves equivalent to 254 days of domestic usage, but no decision has been taken on whether to release part of the stockpile.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Japan should operate all of its available nuclear power plants to offset the impact of the Iran war on electricity bills, Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of a Japanese opposition party, said on Monday. Japan relies on the Middle East for around 95% of its oil supplies and 11% of its liquefied natural gas imports, with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}