*Official Japan import data for June confirm that the country’s LNG imports fell to a multi-decade first half low of 32.41mn tons for 1H 2024, down around 1% year-on-year (see chart 1 and table for full data). There is no sign of an uptick in the latest data, with each month this year seeing successive falls (see chart 2) and the IEA predicting a 1% fall for 2024 as a whole amid gradual ramp-up in operational nuclear capacity (MEES, 26 July).