Kihara’s comments came after the Group of Seven countries agreed Friday to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from emergency reserves and pledged to refrain from imposing energy export restrictions.

The agreement followed pressure from US President Donald Trump on the European Union to draw down emergency diesel inventories.

It remained unclear how much of the new release would come from the remaining stocks of the 400 million barrels that the 32 members of the International Energy Agency agreed in March to release in response to disruptions caused by the US-Israeli aggression on Iran.

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said last week that member countries had released about two-thirds of the 400-million-barrel commitment.

In March, Japan said it would release about 80 million barrels of oil from its reserves as part of the coordinated action.

Japan also conducted a second round of national crude oil stockpile releases in May.

“Japan has been releasing oil from reserves for some time now and there are no plans for a further release at this stage,” Kihara told a press conference.

Meanwhile, the G7 meeting was held amid delays in releasing European strategic reserves and growing concerns over surging diesel prices worldwide.

Kihara said discussions focused particularly on measures to address diesel prices in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

The energy shock has placed governments under growing pressure to use emergency stockpiles to cushion markets, with the IEA describing the disruption following the war in the Middle East as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.

The IEA said oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about 20 million barrels of crude and oil products per day in 2025, or roughly a quarter of global seaborne oil trade, had fallen to less than 10% of pre-conflict levels after the conflict began on Feb. 28.

The scale of the disruption has forced countries to draw down emergency reserves on an unprecedented scale, while the G7 has now agreed to release another 100 million barrels over four months in an effort to stabilize energy markets.