Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assured visiting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that Japan will cooperate with the international community to fight terrorism, the Foreign Ministry said.
Abe's promise came as Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria have shocked the world with a recent spate of beheadings of foreign hostages.
During a meeting Sunday in Kyoto, Abe expressed his condolences to Fabius following the release of a video showing the beheading of a French hostage by militants in Algeria who support Islamic State, the ministry said.
Abe and Fabius, who met while in Kyoto to attend an international conference on science and technology, also reaffirmed cooperation between Japan and France on security and economic matters.
Fabius later met with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo and told him that President Francois Hollande is making arrangements to visit Japan next year.