Japan says it may evacuate its citizens from Iran as soon as Thursday

The Japanese embassy in Iran said on Tuesday it was considering evacuating Japanese nationals by transporting them by bus to a neighbouring country, as the Israel-Iran air war raged for a fifth straight day.

"This could be carried out as early as Thursday, June 19," the embassy said on the foreign ministry's website.

Earlier, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the government was looking into various options for evacuating Japanese citizens, and the foreign ministry issued an evacuation advisory for Japanese nationals in Iran.