Japan Pump Price Continues Rising

June 7, 2018

Tokyo- The average retail price of regular gasoline in Japan as of Monday rose 1.1 yen from a week before to 152.1 yen per liter, up for the seventh straight week, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy said Wednesday.

Gas stations continued to raise their gasoline prices on the back of higher wholesale prices, industry sources said.

The average pump price topped 150 yen last week for the first time in about three and a half years.

As of Monday, the average price rose in 43 of the country's 47 prefectures, excluding Tottori, where the price was flat, and Mie, Toyama and Kagawa, which saw slight drops.

Kochi saw the sharpest increase, of 5.2 yen. Five prefectures--Okinawa, Akita, Nagasaki, Hokkaido and Ehime--posted rises of 2.0 yen or more.

"Retail gasoline prices are expected to decline slightly next week due to a recent drop in crude oil prices," said an official of the Oil Information Center, which conducts the survey for the government agency. Jiji Press