Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye could hold a meeting as early as September, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama.
"If a summit among Japan, China and South Korea is held in early fall, we could stage a Japan-South Korea summit as well," Sugiyama said in a speech Monday in Tokyo.
It would be the first Japan-South Korea summit since Park came to power in 2013. She has declined to hold a summit with Abe over the issue of violence against females procured from the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere to work at brothels for wartime Japanese servicemen.