How Can Energy-Importing Countries Guard Against Geopolitical Risks - Take Japan as an Example

Abstract

With the gradual decline of global economic growth, the world economic cycle is facing an important turning point at present, and various geopolitical crises have occurred one after another. Under this background, energy security risks of energy-importing countries have become increasingly serious. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the function principle and risk avoidance means of geopolitical events affecting energy security. This paper selects Japan, which has a very low energy self-sufficiency rate but achieved good economic development and energy security after World War II, as the research object, and selects the second oil crisis, the Great East Japan earthquake and nuclear leakage, and the novel coronavirus epidemic as the representatives of three geopolitical events to analyze the changes in Japan's energy structure and the policies and measures of the Japanese government. It is found that geopolitical events can affect a country's energy structure and energy strategy from three aspects: energy supply, energy demand and international relations. Finally, based on the experience of Japan, this paper provides reasonable suggestions for energy-importing countries to prevent and resolve the energy security risks caused by the geopolitical crisis.