With no foreseeable prospect of a summit between its leaders, Japan and South Korea must continue to hold talks to address mutually significant issues, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday.

"It is true that we have various problems, but we have to overcome such things," Suga told a news conference after the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers met in Brunei the previous day. "We need to repeat" such contacts to enhance bilateral relations, he added.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida agreed Monday with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, that the two Asian neighbors will strive to improve bilateral ties strained by issues concerning Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula as well as by a territorial dispute.