Press TV- Indications have emerged in the media that three of the biggest Japanese banks are already doing effective business with Iran � what could show a major portion of post-sanctions banking problems in dealing with the Islamic Republic has been removed.� �

Farhad Taqizadeh-Hesari, an economist and a senior associate to the head of Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), told Iran�s domestic media that Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Mizuho Bank had already started transactions with Iranian banks.

This could be a crucial development given that the international banks had been so far complaining that the remaining US sanctions on Iran � particularly a ban on any US dollar transactions � were still obstructing business with Tehran.

Taqizadeh-Hesari emphasized that several other signs had also appeared that showed Iran�s banking relations with Japan had returned to normalcy.

Those signs, he said, included launching a credit line worth $10 billion between Iran and Japan, a whopping increase of 130 percent in Japan�s imports of oil products from Iran and the signing of an agreement between the two countries to support mutual investments and bilateral trade.

Taqizadeh-Hesari further told Iran�s ISNA news agency that the risk for financial transactions between Iran and Japan had decreased after the two countries were able to establish banking transactions based on Japan�s national currency � the yen.

BTMU, Japan's largest bank that handled most of Japan's payments for Iranian oil prior to the sanctions in mid-2012, announced in early 2016 that it had resumed transactions with Iranian banks, including payments for Iranian crude oil bought by Japanese refiners.

The announcement came within a few weeks after a series of draconian economic sanctions � that included bans on banking activities with Iran � were lifted as a result of the implementation of a nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany.