Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi met with new South Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min for the first time on Tuesday, signaling Tokyo's willingness to improve ties with Seoul, which have frayed over wartime and territorial issues.

The meeting with Yun, who arrived in Japan last month following South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration in May, is in stark contrast with Yun's predecessor who did not meet with Japan's foreign minister until almost the end of his 18-month posting.

New South Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min leaves the Foreign Ministry after meeting with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday.  | KYODO
New South Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min leaves the Foreign Ministry after meeting with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday. | KYODO

"We met to make sure that we will work hard alongside each other for a better relationship," Yun said after the meeting at the Foreign Ministry.

Japan and South Korea are likely to accelerate efforts to solve issues including preventing the liquidation of Japanese corporate assets in South Korea that plaintiffs in wartime forced labor lawsuits have seized.

Hayashi also met with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin last month in Tokyo.

South Korea's Supreme Court may issue a ruling on the envisioned liquidation of assets seized from Nippon Steel Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd in August or September, but Tokyo has warned that there will be serious consequences for the bilateral relationship if the court rules to move forward.

Ties between the two nations deteriorated to their lowest level in decades under the previous administration of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, during which the top court ordered the two Japanese firms to compensate South Korean plaintiffs for their unpaid labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.