Could coal ease Japan's wartime fuel shortage?

Could Japan have kept coal-fired ships to reduce its wartime oil problem?

Only partly; domestic coal offered supply advantages, but quality varied and noisy coal handling was especially undesirable for anti-submarine escorts.

Japan possessed domestic coal, so retaining coal-fired ships might appear to ease an oil shortage. Much of that coal was not high quality. Scraping and moving coal also created noise poorly suited to submarine hunting. A strategically available fuel could remain tactically unsuitable for a particular mission.