original Compared to America and Britain, the introduction on gas uses in Japan prior to WW2 was very late. The national use of gas in 1930 was just over 16% and the utilization of gas was only limited in the urban areas. For all gas uses in 1930s, 80% was originated from residential use and it is the largest customer in the business in gas. The reason behind the late application of gas was due to the expensive prices of gas equipments, the high fuels prices which made it uneconomical to warm rooms (It was cheaper to use for rice-cooking instead), the abundant working population with a low energy-saving effort, and cooking with firewood was more familiar to the Japanese with more established cooking utensils for firewood-cooking.
corrected Compared to America and Britain, the introduction of the gas uses in Japan prior to WW2 was very late. The national use of gas in 1930 was just over 16% and the utilization of gas was only limited to the urban areas. For all gas uses in 1930s, 80% was originated from residential use and it is the largest consumer in the gas business. The reason behind the late application of gas was due to the expensive price of gas equipment, the high fuel prices which made it uneconomical for heating (It was cheaper to use for rice-cooking instead), the abundant working population with low energy-saving effort, and the norm of Japanese to cook with firewood and the relevant cooking utensils.