According to a Treasury spokesman, US Treasury Secretary Steven T Mnuchin discussed Iran-related developments with Japan's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso Thursday.
The meeting comes as Tokyo is seeking clarification from Washington on its intended re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran following Trump's unilateral pullout from the 2015 nuclear deal.
One day before the meeting, a senior official at Japanese Ministry of Finance said that Tokoy may seek some form of exemption from the renewed US sanctions regime as Japan tries to avoid any sudden reduction in its Iranian crude oil imports.
In early past decade, Japan had received exemption from US and EU sanctions against Iran.
According to statistics, Japan imported 165,481 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from Iran on average in 2017-18.
After US pullout from the JCPOA, US Treasury Department forced companies to terminate their contracts with Iran by Nov. 4 before re-imposition of new sanctions on Iran’s oil, energy, shipping and insurance sectors.
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