Iran has allegedly asked India to pay for oil using the Japanese yen after Indian officials proposed to pay with rupees during talks in Tehran last week . . . the rupee is not fully convertible to the Iranian rial . . . in addition, the yen has strengthened 7.2 percent over the last 12 months, while the rupee has fallen by 9.2 percent in the same period . . . Tokyo had agreed last month to make $15 billion available to New Delhi in a currency swap arrangement . . . India pays Iran about $1 billion a month for supplies of 370,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which is 12 percent of India’s energy needs . . . Iran wants to receive partial payment in yen because Tehran is concerned that they might get a poor exchange from rupee payments . . . Iran is also worried that India’s total annual bill cannot be paid completely through exports . . . Tehran would like New Delhi to invest in non-strategic infrastructure projects in return for oil in an attempt to avoid sanctions, however this is unlikely . . . Japan, China, Russia, and South Korea already plan to trade with Iran using their respective currencies to avoid sanctions on Iran by the United States and European Union.