Cultural and scientific ties, however, have continued, even if Iranians living in Japan number fewer than 7,000, and Japanese in Iran are a tenth of that. In 2006, a major exhibition entitled “The Glory of Persia” opened at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and then toured Japan. Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian Nobel Prize winner, remains an admired role model for Japanese women. And last year, Shirin Nezammafi, a 29-year-old Iranian engineer working in Japan, won a prestigious literary prize for her first novel, written in Japanese. She was only the second foreigner ever to receive the prize.

Japanese attitudes toward Iran have changed since the Iranian presidential elections last June. Images of young Iranians with green headbands defying the batons and bullets of government forces have come as a shock, particularly to the politically meek Japanese youth. Terse two-paragraph statements by the generally cautious Ministry of Foreign Affairs in July, August and again December last year expressed “concern” and “regret” over Tehran’s abuses (including the persecution of Iranian staff members at the Japanese embassy) and encouraged a peaceful settlement of differences. When Saeed Jalili, secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, visited Japan in December, the chill was palpable.

The time has come for Japan to use its prestige with the Iranians to search for a peaceful resolution to Iran’s internal turmoil. Tokyo should do so in the understanding that the nuclear issue swirling around Tehran is, at least in part, an attempt by the regime to contain its domestic problems. To deal with one without addressing the other is self-defeating. Japan also needs Iran, to support its efforts in Afghanistan, where it has invested considerable prestige and money. Tokyo can up the ante in at least two ways.

First, the Hatoyama government should appoint a special representative for human rights in Iran. The Diet, too, should stop its internal bickering for a moment to form a bipartisan committee to monitor events in Iran and reach out to Iranian legislators across a range of issues, including compliance with universal norms of human rights.

Second, Japan should take a more active role in mobilizing diplomacy at the United Nations, such as facilitating visits to Iran by U.N. human rights monitors while persuading Tehran that cooperation — in particular opening up its prisons — is in its own best interest.