Katya Golubkova

Japanese trading house Itochu posted on Thursday an increase of 11% in nine-month net profit to December of 676.5 billion yen ($4.44 billion) from the corresponding period a year earlier.

Japan's demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) may grow by more than 10% to some 74 million metric tons by 2040 under a government scenario where the renewable energy rollout goes slower than expected, a senior industry ministry official said.

Japanese trading house Mitsui could consider studying a project to liquefy natural gas in the U.S. state of Alaska, but no decisions have been made yet, Chief Financial Officer Tetsuya Shigeta said on Tuesday.

Mitsubishi Corp on Monday said it is reviewing how to proceed with its offshore wind projects in Japan given a "significantly changed" business environment, showing that the country is not immune to rising costs across offshore wind projects globally.

Japan's industry ministry is aware of a view that expansion of data centres may increase demand for electricity, however, it is difficult yet to predict how demand may change with the appearance of one technology such as DeepSeek, it said by email.

Japan's top LNG buyer said more US LNG provides a good option to diversify its supply portfolio.

Weeks after Japan revealed details of a landmark energy plan partly designed to keep up with an expected AI surge, the shock rise of Chinese startup DeepSeek has upended conventional wisdom over the sector's future power demands.

Japan's Nippon Steel remains interested in working with the incoming administration of Donald Trump to try to seal a takeover of U.S. Steel , its vice chairman Takahiro Mori said an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Nippon Steel's $15 billion bid for U.S. Steel has been referred to U.S. President Joe Biden, a White House spokesman said, giving the president 15 days to decide on a tie up he has previously said he opposes.

Japan wants renewable energy to account for up to 50% of its electricity mix by fiscal year 2040 with nuclear power taking up another 20%, according to a draft of its revised basic energy policy, as it makes a clean energy push while meeting rising power demand.