Japan’s nationwide average retail price of regular gasoline fell by 1.7 yen to 184.8 yen ($1.30) per litre over the week to Sept. 11 helped by enhanced subsidies, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Wednesday.

The drop comes after rising for 16 consecutive weeks to a record.

The government has had fuel subsidies in place since early 2022 but has been cutting its support gradually in recent months, with a plan to stop them by the end of September.
However, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said late last month that the government will enhance and extend subsidies through the end of the year to bring down record gasoline prices that have added to stubbornly high inflation.

Gasoline prices have been rising steadily in Japan due to the weaker yen against the U.S. dollar and rising global oil prices.

Without the subsidies, the gasoline price would have been at about 197.3 yen per litre for the last week, the ministry said.

Some environmentalists say the action could be counterproductive to the decarbonisation push and comes despite a G7 commitment to eliminate “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies by 2025.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)