Japan Pump Price Drops to 5-Month Low

   Tokyo, May 28 (Jiji Press)--The average retail price of regular gasoline in Japan has slipped through 180 yen per liter to hit a five-month low thanks to the resumption of government subsidies to refiners, industry ministry data showed Wednesday.
   Per-liter pump prices across the country averaged 177.6 yen as of Monday, down 4.5 yen from a week earlier. The level was the lowest since Dec. 16 last year, reflecting drops in average prices in all 47 prefectures.
   By prefecture, the highest average was Kagoshima's 188.3 yen and the lowest was Hyogo's 170.5 yen while Okayama marked the biggest week-on-week drop of 10.6 yen and Okinawa the smallest decline of 1.6 yen.
   The government provided a subsidy of 7.4 per liter of gasoline in the week through Wednesday. The assistance will go up to 8.4 yen in the following week and reach 10 yen by the end of June.
   The Oil Information Center of the Institute of Energy Economics expects that pump prices will drop 1 yen or so on average in one or two weeks.

(2025/05/28-19:22)