By Andrew Mills and Sakura Murakami
DOHA (Reuters) -Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to strengthen&nbsp;energy&nbsp;ties&nbsp;and economic cooperation with major gas producer&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;on Tuesday, the final leg of a Gulf tour that has focused on securing&nbsp;energy&nbsp;supplies and promoting&nbsp;Japanese high tech.
Kishida, who has been urged by&nbsp;Japan's gas lobby to secure new liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies from&nbsp;Qatar, held&nbsp;talks&nbsp;with the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. They agreed to&nbsp;upgrade&nbsp;their countries' relationship to strategic from comprehensive, "especially in&nbsp;energy, economy, defence, security and academic exchange," the emir's office said.
The two countries did not announce new&nbsp;LNG&nbsp;deals on Tuesday, but Kishida told Sheikh Tamim that "LNG&nbsp;serves a crucial role in Asia for a realistic&nbsp;energy&nbsp;transition," according to a&nbsp;Japanese foreign ministry statement.
Kishida emphasized that&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;had been the country to gain consensus from the G7 on the importance of natural gas and&nbsp;LNG&nbsp;investments, the statement said, "based on the understanding that mid- to long-term investment in such&nbsp;energy&nbsp;is indispensable for the G7."
Competition for&nbsp;LNG&nbsp;has ramped up since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Europe in particular needing large amounts to help replace gas piped from Russia.
Qatar's minister of state for&nbsp;energy&nbsp;and the&nbsp;QatarEnergy&nbsp;CEO attended the meeting between the two leaders alongside other officials, the&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;statement said.
Japan, which remains highly dependent on oil and gas imports, did not renew several long term&nbsp;LNG&nbsp;contracts with&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;when they lapsed in 2021 and 2022, significantly reducing gas imports from one of the world's top&nbsp;LNG&nbsp;exporters.
Meanwhile, several other Asian buyers have signed long-term&nbsp;LNG&nbsp;supply contracts with&nbsp;Qatar, including a pair of record-length 27-year deals with Chinese importers for gas from Doha's North Field expansion, which will increase the Gulf Arab state's gas production by more than 60%.
"Coordination with&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;is extremely important for stabilizing global liquefied natural gas markets," the&nbsp;Japanese foreign ministry said in a document outlining the objectives of the&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;talks.
QatarEnergy&nbsp;has said it expects to sign supply contracts for nearly all of the new North Field volumes in 2023.
Kishida's&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;visit follows a stop in Saudi Arabia on Sunday in which Riyadh said it remained committed to securing oil supplies for&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;and would continue cooperating with Tokyo on clean hydrogen, ammonia and recycled carbon fuels.
In Abu Dhabi on Monday, Kishida and UAE leaders agreed to a new scheme to accelerate&nbsp;energy&nbsp;security, as well as a framework for the UAE to invest&nbsp;Japanese chip and battery technology.
(Reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha, Sakura Murakami in Tokyo, Rachna Uppal in Abu Dhabi and Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh; Writing by Andrew Mills; Editing by Mike Harrison and Grant McCool)

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Japan, Qatar upgrade energy ties during LNG talks