For the first time ever this month, shale oil was extracted from a Japanese oil field.
Although the Ayukawa oil and gas field in Akita Prefecture likely doesn't hold vast quantities, its yield is still good news for a nation seeking new energy resources as it turns away from nuclear power in light of the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Japan's fuel self-sufficiency rate is only 4 percent, or 18 percent if nuclear power remains an option, according to the Natural Resources and Energy Agency. The energy self-sufficiency rate in many industrialized nations ranges from 50 to 153 percent.
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