Japan Begins Construction of the World’s Largest Commercial Liquid Hydrogen Receiving Terminal

A consortium of major Japanese industrial companies has begun construction on what will become the world’s largest commercial liquid hydrogen receiving terminal, scheduled to enter operation in 2030.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Japan’s Suiso Energy (JSE) have broken ground on a new liquid hydrogen terminal designed to support future hydrogen imports into Japan. The facility, located on Ōgishima in Kawasaki City, is being designed and built by a Kawasaki-led joint venture, with JSE overseeing operations. The project is supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

The terminal will be the world’s first commercial facility capable of handling liquid hydrogen at scale. It will feature the world’s largest 50,000-cubic-meter liquid hydrogen storage tank, along with a marine loading system, hydrogen liquefaction equipment, gas supply infrastructure, and land-based transport dispatch facilities.

The two companies also revealed plans for a future liquid hydrogen carrier with a capacity of approximately 40,000 cubic meters—one of the largest vessels of its kind. Paired with the terminal, the ship is expected to form a key foundation for the full-scale operation of future hydrogen supply chains.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries and JSE aim to bring both the terminal and the new transport vessel online by fiscal year 2030, setting benchmarks for performance, safety, durability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness in Japan’s first commercial international hydrogen network. Starting in 2030, the partners plan to import liquid hydrogen to Japan using dedicated carriers, store it at the Kawasaki terminal, and distribute it to domestic hydrogen users.

As an energy-importing nation, Japan is actively developing a large-scale, low-cost overseas hydrogen supply system. In September, Woodside Energy signed an agreement with JSE and Kansai Electric Power to explore exporting blue hydrogen from its planned project in Perth, Australia, providing Japan with a new pathway toward decarbonization.

However, critics note that liquid hydrogen must be kept at an extremely low temperature of –253°C and is prone to boil-off losses, making long-distance transport technically and economically challenging. Supporters argue that compared with hydrogen carriers such as ammonia, liquid hydrogen offers efficiency advantages because it eliminates the need for energy-intensive cracking processes to release pure hydrogen.