Asia Times: Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, may have found a way to reduce its almost total dependence on other countries for the oil that drives the industries on which the country’s wealth is built. Betting that Japan can extract and commercially exploit methane hydrate, the hoped-for alternative to oil, investors last week drove up the price of Japan Drilling, a company established in 1968 but only this month raising money by selling shares to the public. Japan Drilling won …