*Unlike Japan’s oil imports which continue to slide to new multi-decade lows (MEES, 6 August), the country’s LNG imports rose 7% to 38.89mn tons for 1H 2021, though this remains almost 6mn tons down on the record first half figure set in 2012 (see chart). But despite this Japan was overtaken by China which imported 40.16mn tons (MEES, 23 July) as the world’s top importer of the supercool fuel.