Iran will allow Japanese oi tanker to transit the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran develops a selective blockade of the strategic waterway and effectively opens a toll road to the international energy markets.

“We have not closed the strait. In our opinion, the strait is open. It is closed only to ships belonging to our enemies, countries that attack us. For other countries, ships can pass through the strait ,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Japan’s Kyodo News late on Friday.

“We are talking to them to find a way to pass safely. We are ready to provide them with safe passage. All they need to do is contact us to discuss how this route will be,” Araghchi said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi last week expressed concern about the large number of Japanese vessels currently stranded in the Gulf, in a conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“I emphasized that the safety of these vessels is of the utmost importance,” he said, noting that 45 Japanese vessels have currently halted in the Persian Gulf.

“From Japan’s perspective, since there are so many vessels involved, we believe it is extremely important to create a situation where all of them can pass through,” Motegi said, according to a read out of his call with Araghchi.

Iran released one of two Japanese national current in jail in Iran following the call, who travelled to Azerbaijan after being released on March 18.

Japan sources more than 90% of its crude oil imports from the Middle East and is heavily dependent on exports transiting the strait, Al Jazeera reports. but the waterway has been de facto closed since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

Japan joins the small cohort of countries, including China, India, and Pakistan that have been granted permits-for-passage, an informal system that allows oil traveling to “friendly countries” to pass through the narrow waterway. An estimate 90 ships have made the voyage since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28.

Permitting Japanese ships through the strait is poignant as Japan is one of the US’ closest allies in the Indo-Pacific region and not necessarily counted as a “friendly country” by Tehran. While Japan is heavily dependent on imports of LNG, unlike most of the other Asian countries, which import the majority of their gas from the Middle East, Japan has one of the most diversified LNG supply portfolios globally, sourcing from Australia, Malaysia, Qatar, Russia and the US, of which US firms for 10-20% of the gas import mix.

Japan, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom earlier this week issued a joint statement expressing their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”. However, none of the signaturees, including Tokyo, said they were willing to send warships now, but would wait until the end of the conflict.

 

Asia remains dependent on Qatari LNG
Country	LNG Imports from Qatar (2025)
China	19.7M
India	11.7M
Taiwan	8.0M
Pakistan	7.0M
South Korea	6.9M
Kuwait	5.1M
Italy	4.8M
Bangladesh	4.7M
Japan	3.6M
Singapore	3.1M
Thailand	2.3M
Belgium	1.6M
Poland	1.5M
Hong Kong	543.1K
United Kingdom	504.8K
source: BLoomberg