"The resource (methane hydrate) available to Japan is enormous JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation) researchers estimated in 2008 that 1.1 trillion cubic metres of the methane hydrate lurk beneath the eastern Nankai Trough - enough to offset at least a decades worth of foreign gas imports"
Source: The ice gas cometh
By Katia Moskvitch
The Sunday Age
September 29th 2013, page 15