May 16, The Iran Project – During the last four years, Iran’s resumption of relations with the world has been put at the top of the agenda by the government and the country’s developing relations with the East Asian countries, namely Japan, was of great significance.

In addition to China and South Korea, Japan was also another target country of Tehran trying to return Iran to international arena.

Iran and Japan, as the two influential countries in Asian region, had friendly ties before international sanctions cut off Iran’s relations with the world, but at the time of sanctions, the two countries’ bilateral relations significantly reduced.

However, shortly after Iran signing the agreement with six world powers, Tehran resumed ties with Tokyo exporting 31 percent more crude oil to Japan in late 2015, and Japan Prime Minister sent his special envoy Masahiko Kumura to Tehran to establish new diplomatic ties with the country.

Tehran-Tokyo resuming ties in post-sanctions era has been of mutual benefits for the two sides; Iran, having the necessary infrastructure and security in an insecure area, can be a good gateway for Japanese goods to enter market several hundred million market of Iran's neighbors.

On the other hand, Iran's cooperation with Japan can boost the country’s relations with the world, especially East-Asian countries.

So, given that Tehran-Tokyo relations have always been on the basis of mutual benefit and mutual respect, it is increasingly necessary to strengthen the two countries’ ties.