Mr. Geithner has been traveling in Asia this week to drum up support for an American-led campaign to step up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program by curbing its lucrative oil sales. Chinese officials said on Wednesday that they wanted no part of that effort.

Japan, a leading importer of Iranian oil, joins another big customer, the European Union, in pledging to reduce its purchases. But Japan could still balk at cutting them too deeply. Japan, and especially the Tokyo metropolitan area, have become more dependent on oil in the wake of the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which has thrown the country’s nuclear energy program into disarray. Iran now supplies about 10 percent of Japan’s oil imports, according to the Finance Ministry.

Unlike China, Japan cannot afford to ignore American diplomatic initiatives, because it depends heavily on the United States for its defense, in particular against its belligerent neighbor North Korea.

Jun Azumi, the Japanese finance minister, said on Thursday after meeting with Mr. Geithner that Japan would “take concrete action to further reduce” its oil imports from Iran, but that cutting them to zero “would cause immense damage.” He said he asked Mr. Geithner to “take Japan’s situation into consideration.”

Osamu Fujiwara, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, later seemed to backtrack on Mr. Azumi’s pledge, saying a reduction was “just one of several options.” And in a meeting later on Thurdsay, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told Mr. Geithner that crimping Iran’s oil sales “could cause serious effects on the Japanese and world economies,” according to a statement from his office.

Officials in Tokyo worry that the effort will push up oil prices. But they also worry about a new American law that would deny access to the American financial system for foreign institutions that do business with Iran’s Central Bank, the main clearinghouse for payments for Iranian oil. The law allows the White House to make exceptions for countries that achieve a “significant reduction” in their imports of oil from Iran, and Japanese news media have reported that Japan hopes to secure such a waiver.

“We are exploring ways to cut Iran’s central bank off from the global financial system,” Mr. Geithner said in Tokyo on Thursday. “We are in the early stages of consulting with Japan and our other allies. “We appreciate the support that Japan has provided.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/world/asia/warming-to-united-states-plea-japan-pledges-to-cut-oil-from-iran.html?partner=rss&emc=rss