The foreign ministers of Iran and Japan consulted in a telephone conversation on the topics of interest of the two countries, on Thursday, February 3.
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Japan's Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, for his part, highlighted the existence of grounds for further development of economic relations between Iran and Japan by removing existing obstacles and invited his Iranian counterpart to visit Tokyo.
It seems that with the ongoing talks in Vienna to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and some emerging signs of lifting the US anti-Iran sanctions, countries like Japan that are optimistic about the results of the negotiations are now preparing to resume relations and trade ties with Iran.
After the US scrapped the internationally signed the JCPOA and enhanced sanctions on Iran, Japan minimized its relations with Iran; export of Iranian oil to Japan stopped and non-oil exports to the country also reached around $38 million.
It came despite the fact that Iran and Japan enjoyed more than 90 years of relations in political and economic areas, as well as other areas such as energy, mining, tourism, water, environment, technology and science.
The Chairman of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) recently expressed dissatisfaction of the low level of trade between the two countries, considering the sanctions as the obstacle to the ties.
Also, the Chairman of the Iran – Japan Joint Committee of Commerce Bahram Shakouri said: "Recently, JETRO has prepared a package of cooperation with Iran and is interested in increasing relations, and this shows that the Japanese believe that sanctions against Iran will be lifted."
Japan has been looking for keeping friendly ties with Iran amid the maximum pressure of the US ex-administration against Iran where Japan tried to play the role of a mediator, but its attempts did not bear fruit and they finally failed to do so due to the hostile policies of the US against Iran.
Iran also has considered Japan as a friend, and as the new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said developing bilateral ties with Japan was of paramount importance for Iran.
It is obvious in Iran-Japan ties that the economic dimensions have been of particular importance as an industrial and export-dependent country, Japan needs Iran's oil and vast market, and at the same time, Iran has always viewed Japan as a great market to sell oil and buy technological goods.
Therefore, Japan now hopes that the hostile approach of the US towards Iran changes and the sanctions are removed so that it will revive and expand its previous relations with Iran.
