From this viewpoint, Japan is closely watching the situation with serious concern," she added when asked about Japan's oil dependence on the Middle East, which supplies more than 90% of its needs. G7 finance ministers, who were meeting in Morocco as events escalated, issued a brief statement on the attacks on Oct. 12. Japan was "standing one step behind the United States and some European countries", added Isamu Nakashima, associate research fellow at the Middle East Institute of Japan. "The through line of Japan's Middle East policy has been maintaining the flow of energy imports from the region," said David Boling, a director at consulting firm Eurasia Group. While the United States is Japan's closest ally, when it comes to the Middle East, Tokyo will be very wary of being seen as its proxy, said Shuji Hosaka, board member of the Institute of Energy Economics Japan.

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Persons: Yoko Kamikawa, Fumio Kishida, Isamu Nakashima, David Boling, Shuji Hosaka, John Geddie, Yoshifumi Takemoto, Tim Kelly, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Ekaterina Golubkova, Kiyoshi Takenaka, Kentaro Sugiyama, Alex Richardson Organizations: Petroleum, Kyodo, Tokyo, Reuters, Middle East Institute of Japan, Middle, Energy, Eurasia Group, U.S, Institute of Energy Economics Japan, Thomson Locations: Kagoshima prefecture, Japan, TOKYO, Israel, Tokyo, Gaza, Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Morocco, United States, U.S, Saudi Arabia, East