Japan Says It Has Four Months of Naphtha as Plastics Risk Grows

TOKYO — Japan has secured at least four months of naphtha supply, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on April 6, after online claims said the country could run short of the petroleum feedstock as the Strait of Hormuz disruption strained energy flows.

Kihara told a regular press conference that the shortage claim was "incorrect" and said Japan had secured about two months of imported and domestically refined naphtha, plus roughly two months of intermediate chemical inventories, according to Kyodo and Mainichi.

The assurance addressed public concern, but it did not end pressure on manufacturers. Naphtha is used to produce ethylene and other petrochemical building blocks that feed into plastic bottles, synthetic fibers, packaging, electrical goods and medical materials.

Japan relies on the Middle East for more than 90% of its crude oil imports, according to the Kyodo report. Most of those shipments normally pass through Hormuz, the narrow waterway at the center of the current disruption.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said imports of Middle Eastern crude routed through the Red Sea, west of Saudi Arabia, were expected to begin in earnest next month or later, Kyodo reported. The government is also considering supplies from Kazakhstan and aims to secure oil from Azerbaijan, the report said.

The issue has moved beyond pump prices. Japanese coverage has framed the risk as one for factory continuity and household goods, while much English-language market coverage has centered on oil benchmarks and naval posture.

The Japan Times reported in recent days that major chemical makers were working to avoid halting ethylene plants, where shutdowns can take more than a month to reverse. In that framing, the concern is not only whether Japan can buy enough crude, but whether chemical chains can keep operating without interruption.

That distinction matters for industries that do not appear in oil market charts. Packaging firms, food processors, hospitals and appliance makers all depend on petrochemical inputs that can become scarce even when headline fuel supply appears adequate.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on social media that Japan had secured at least four months of domestic demand and could raise that to more than six months by doubling imports from outside the Middle East, according to Kyodo. Her statement was part reassurance and part signal that supply diversification had become urgent.

Political messaging inside Japan has reflected that broader concern. Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Shunichi Suzuki said the government could ask the public to conserve energy if the Middle East situation worsens, according to Kyodo.

Industry has already started to adapt. Mazda Motor Corp. said it would suspend production of vehicles for the Middle East until May because shipments to the region had been stalled since March, while shifting output toward Europe and the United States, Kyodo reported. The same report said Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. were also reducing production.

Japanese domestic reporting has treated the crisis as a supply-security problem touching diapers, drinks, plastic toys and factory inputs. That stands apart from coverage in Washington and London, where the same disruption is still often framed through strategic deterrence and oil futures.

The gap is not just editorial style. In Japan, the practical question is how long refineries, petrochemical complexes and manufacturers can keep operating before shortages of feedstocks start to alter daily life.

UN Trade and Development said this week that shipping disruptions in Hormuz were expected to intensify inflationary pressures and raise trade costs across an already strained global economy. For Japan, that warning lands directly on industries that import energy, process materials and export finished goods.

Kihara said that, for now, "no supply-demand problems have emerged" and that Japan as a whole had secured what it needed. The next test will come over the next several weeks, when alternative routing plans, stockpile releases and supplier diversification efforts will have to show whether that buffer can hold without forcing wider industrial cutbacks.