Japan's crude oil import price reached a record high in yen terms in June, marking a third straight monthly record, Ministry of Finance data showed on Wednesday, as supply disruptions from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drove energy prices higher.
The customs-cleared import price rose 84.7 per cent from a year earlier to JPY117,684 ($722) per kilolitre, the highest since comparable records began in 1979, surpassing the previous record of JPY114,076 in May.
In dollar terms, the price stood at $117.16 per barrel, the ninth-highest on record. Also contributing to the increase were a weaker yen as well as higher insurance and freight costs.
Japan's crude import price, known as the Japan Crude Cocktail (JCC), is based on customs-cleared CIF (cost, insurance and freight) prices and typically tracks global oil trends with a roughly one-month lag due to shipping times.
Higher JCC prices increase the cost of importing crude oil and liquefied natural gas, a key fuel for thermal power generation, feeding through to higher electricity prices.
Crude import volumes fell 13.7 per cent from a year earlier in June, after dropping 57.3 per cent in May and 64 per cent in April, the steepest decline since 1980.
By region, imports from the Middle East plunged 40.6 per cent to 5.69 million kilolitres (35.8 million barrels), while shipments from the United States soared 459.5 per cent to 2.72 million kilolitres.
Before the disruptions to the strait due to the US-Iran war that broke out in late February, about 95 per cent of Japan's crude imports came from the Middle East.
In value terms, crude imports surged 59.3 per cent, the first increase in 17 months.
For the first half of 2026, the import price rose 12.4 per cent from a year earlier to JPY81,498 per kilolitre, the second-highest six-month average on record. The record was JPY93,750 per kilolitre in the second half of 2022, a MOF official said.
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi, editing by Andrei Khalip)
