Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's announcement on Thursday that he would not abandon a massive Russian gas project was decided weeks ago when he told top officials in private he wouldn't risk Japan's energy security, three sources said.
Kishida assured his trade and economy minister, Koichi Hagiuda, and other officials during meetings in early March that he would stay in the Sakhalin-2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) project because leaving threatened the economy, the sources said.
