If you can manufacture pure hydrogen by hydrolysis from Australia solar power, then they should go the next step and create methane (CH4). If you can extract carbon from CO2, that would be a crazy good win. (Probably horribly energy inefficient, but that is the future, I guess.) Anywhere with huge deserts and access to ports can become rich on this path: India, Chile, Australia, North Africa, Middle East. (China has big deserts, but very far from ports.)
People are talking a lot about batteries in this HN discussion, but there are industries that are so much simpler to run on burning gas/coal (steel, petro-chemical, etc.). Japan has massive heavy industry, similar to Germany, that 100% depends upon imported methane. Someone also told me (not sure if true) that the infra required for hydrogen is much more expensive than methane because it is "more leaky". Thus, equipment tolerances are way higher for pure H2 vs CH4.
Last: The "we don't like nuclear" view will only last until the next energy crisis. The current PM (Kishida) is already talking about re-activation. Yes, there will be billions to spend to upgrade existing reactors, but Japan never shies away from infra spending! It doesn't get much attention in the media, but plenty of infra (bridges, tunnels, etc.) was upgraded after the 2014 earthquake.
