The Japanese are not here to be customers; they are here to...

The Japanese are not here to be customers; they are here to invest. To do that, they need to persuade the Australian government to allow them to relax foreign ownership and gas export bans to friendly countries such as Japan.
For the Japanese, secure gas supply from West Australia (bypassing the new Chinese naval base in Solomon Islands is worth far more than the monetary value for other bidders. Secure gas supply means keeping factories open in Japan long after competitors have to close. Therefore they will always be able to outbid all other bidders and still get the gas companies for way less than they were prepared to pay.
That is why Japanese companies have diplomatic and financial government backing; it is a national imperative.

One thing is for sure: they would not want to invest in Australian fertiliser for Australian farmers when Japanese factories are closing due to lack of energy, "not even for ready money".