Japan has pinned hopes on undersea deposits of methane hydrates, as a means to prevent a looming energy crisis.
On Tuesday, a team aboard a drilling ship successfully extracted gas from a layer of methane hydrates 300 meters below the seabed in the Easter Nankai Trough. Japan currently imports nearly all of its oil and natural gas, with wind and solar energy still in early stages of development.
The Japanese government says that it is still five years away from being able to commercialize natural gas from methane hydrates.