The US Synfuel Development Program was strongly accelerated after each of the two oil crisis. As the oil price declined, and under the Reagan administra-tion with policy change putting emphasis on market mechanism, however, almost all syn-fuel development projects were discontinued. In the U S. the energy issue has lost its attractiveness among the policy makers and the Program, which had originally been con-ceived to address a national security issue, had to be transformed to a program to address the issue of enviromental protection. Consequently, the Program was renamed to be called “Clean Coal Technology Program”.
Stimulated by the U S, Japan started her Synfuel Development Program. It has been maintained on a large scale even after the decline of oil prices, which now makes Japan the only country with a strong synfuel development program being implemented.
The differences in the energy policy between the U S and Japan can be explained by the difference in the situation in the two countries in terms of domestically available energy resources, role of the government, R&D budget and the basic economic measures.