Japan is relying more heavily on offshore ship-to-ship oil transfers to secure crude supply while keeping its tankers farther from the Middle East conflict zone. The shift shows how buyers are adapting logistics as war risk, insurance costs and crew safety concerns make direct voyages through exposed regional routes harder to justify.For TankerMap readers, the change is significant because offshore transfer networks can reshape tanker utilization well beyond Asia. TankerMap tracks 3,201 crude tankers across a global fleet of 4,105 vessels and monitors 155 ports. A wider move toward remote transfers could alter voyage economics, cargo timing and vessel positioning, especially if Northeast Asian importers continue preferring indirect supply chains over direct exposure to Hormuz-linked routes.