Japan Secures July Oil Imports at Prior-Year Levels Despite Hormuz Disruption

Japan has secured the same volumes of oil imports for July 2026 as it did a year earlier despite the Hormuz crisis, sources familiar with the procurement plans told Kyodo News on Thursday, June 11, 2026. The country is boosting imports from producers not dependent on the Strait of Hormuz to deliver their crude.

Japan has turned to suppliers including the United States, Azerbaijan, South Sudan, and Russia's Sakhalin.

Resource-poor Japan is one of the biggest energy importers globally. Before the war, it relied on the Middle East for as much as 95 percent of its oil imports, with most coming from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Of those Middle Eastern supplies, about 70 percent typically arrived on tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.

In April 2026, Japan imported the lowest volume of crude oil from the Middle East on record since 1979. As of June 2026, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is at 90 percent lower volumes compared to before March 2026. Japan began releasing oil stocks from national reserves at the end of March 2026 as part of the IEA-coordinated release.

Japan is releasing a total of 80 million barrels of oil stocks, including 54 million barrels of crude oil and 26 million barrels of oil products. The IEA-coordinated release totals 400 million barrels of oil and fuel. Japan's ongoing stocks release is its biggest ever and is helping domestic refiners increase throughput.

Alternative supply from the United States, Azerbaijan, and Latin America is also helping increase refinery throughput.