The Japan Gas Association
1-15-12 Toranomon Minato-ku, Tokyo105-0001, JAPAN25 February 2021

Summary of Remarks by JGA Chair Michiaki Hirose
1. Impact of the earthquake that occurred off the coast of Fukushima Pref.
On the night of February 13th, almost 10 years after the Great East Japan
Earthquake (2011), an earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture.
We would like to express our deepest sympathies to all those affected by thedisaster.

There were many city gas utilities that shook with a seismic intensityof 5 or higher in their supply areas, and there were places where the seismic
intensity was 6 or higher at the maximum, however, there was no outage of gas
supply.

One of the reasons why the damage was relatively minor to the scale of theearthquake, I believe that various measures such as making gas pipelines
earthquake-resistant were also quite effective.

Here are some examples of earthquake countermeasures that gas utilities havetaken from after the Great East Japan Earthquake (2011) to the present day.

First, about gas pipeline, the seismic resistance rate of low-pressure gas
pipelines improved from 80.1% at the end of 2011 to 89.5% at the end of 2018by aggressively replacing polyethylene pipes that are resistant to earthquakes.
The national safety advancement target of 90% at the end of 2025 is sure to beachieved ahead of schedule.

A major feature of the Great East Japan Earthquake was the "tsunami".

Takingthe earthquake as an opportunity, gas utilities those are expected to bedamaged by tsunami strengthened measures against tsunami and inundation,such as raising important electricity and gas facilities.

In addition, as a further strengthening of efforts, we organized the preparationsin advance for the prompt establishment of the support system and started the"support acceptance exercise" in collaboration with each gas utility and JGA.

Furthermore, in addition to providing easy-to-understand information tocustomers, we have developed a "JGA restoration progress visualization
system"tofacilitate

restoration

workandstrengthened

information

dissemination in the event of a disaster, such as making it available to JGA
member utilities.
There are other matters that we have worked on, but those are not enough fordisaster countermeasures. By continuing to do so, we will contribute to a safer
and more stable energy supply that is resilient to disasters.

2. Issues and Actions of rural gas utilities
There are three issues specific to rural gas operators: "low / decarbonization","strengthening resilience", "population decline (regional revitalization as acountermeasure)".
to region.

The situation of each rural gas company varies from region

For this reason, we will take the initiative to solve the three issues

in cooperation with local governments, local companies, and residents, while
having their own policies based on the local conditions and environment thatform the basis of each business. We believe that these various efforts will leadto the achievement of "regional sustainability" and "strengthening themanagement base."
To support these local gas companies, the Japan Gas Association establisheda "Regional Division" in April 2019. The Regional Division picks up the issues ofthe member companies from the seven rural branches which are regional
branch organizations of JGA. Let me introduce our several activities. The first isto provide opportunities for sharing cases and issues of gas business. For
example, from February 3rd to 26th, the Webinar named "RegionalRevitalization Forum" is held to provide information to member utilities
nationwide, such as lectures that contribute to regional revitalization andexamples of business activities that will be helpful to other utilities.

The second

is the "Cogeneration and Regional Energy System Council" as an opportunity
to share technology and experience."

This council cooperates with thegovernment in 10 areas nationwide to share information on energy systems
according to the characteristics of each region. The third is "distribution of PRtools".

To convey the role of gas for the future to local governments, we havemade a booklet titled "The Future of 2050 Created by Distributed Energy".

Inaddition to these efforts, we would like to provide business support that goes
one step further in the future. The issues of rural gas utilities are difficult,including social issues such as population decline and declining birthrate andaging population.
For this reason, it is not easy to solve soon, but we will work on it in the longterm.