Staff writer

Tokyo will resume medium- and long-term trade and investment insurance for Japanese companies doing business with Iran, amid growing signs of a thaw in hostile relations between Tehran and Washington, government sources said Thursday.

While the Ministry of International Trade and Industry has not determined when the insurance will be resumed, it will be between later this month and autumn, the sources said. "We wanted to make the resumption much earlier but could not do so because a consensus has not been reached within the Japanese government," a MITI source said. "The Foreign Ministry has so far been reluctant toward the resumption."