Japan’s finance minister, Jun Azumi, has said that his country will take steps to reduce its oil dependency on Iran. His comments come after meeting in Tokyo with US Treasury Secretary Geithner.

Geithner wants China and Japan to enforce stricter sanctions on Iran’s oil industry in an attempt to cub Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

He however didn’t get the same response from Chinese leaders in Beijing.

Japan is the second largest importer of Iranian oil and has already urged Gulf Arab countries to raise their exports to make up any shortfall.