19.

Having experienced two oil shocks, Japan planned to diversify the areas from which it imports crude oil and increase imports of crude oil from China and India. The import ratio of imports from the Middle East went from around 90% in 1968 to 67% in 1987. However, as a result of the increasing demand for oil in Asia, oil producing countries in Asia have allotted crude oil for use to cover domestic demand, instead of for export. Consequently, Japan's dependence on the Middle East has once again risen in recent years to become 90.2% in 2005, due to reasons such as a relative decrease in Asian exports to Japan (FY2006 White Paper on Energy).