Japan will continue to negotiate with the United States to seek exemption from the U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil, as Tokyo wants to avoid negative impacts on its energy supply and business activity, Japan’s public broadcaster HNK quoted Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko as saying on Tuesday. Japan and the United States held talks earlier this month on Iran’s sanctions, Seko told reporters today, adding that he conveyed Japan’s position that the sanctions shouldn’t disrupt the Japanese corporate activity. “The Japanese side insisted on the basic principle that [the US sanctions] should not affect energy supply or have a negative impact on Japanese corporate activities,” Platts quoted Seko as saying at a news conference. According to data by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan’s oil imports from Iran stood at 162,222 bpd on average between January and June 2018, down by 2.7 percent year on year. […]