foreign news on april 20, data released by the japanese ministry of finance on thursday showed that japan's imports of crude oil after customs clearance in march increased by 0.4% compared with the same period last year.
japan is the world's fourth largest crude oil importer, with preliminary data showing that the country imported 2.63 million barrels per day (12.982 million kiloliters) of crude oil in march.
data show that japan imported 5.723 million tons of liquefied natural gas last month, a year-on-year decrease of 12.0%; imports of thermal coal for power generation decreased by 19.9% to 8.505 million tons.
