Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Saturday for the first time since Russia's February 2022 invasion of its neighbor in a show of Tokyo's support for Kyiv amid the bloody conflict.
Hayashi met with a number of high-ranking officials in Kyiv, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the two agreeing "to begin talks on a bilateral Ukrainian-Japanese agreement on security guarantees," Zelenskyy said.
Group of Seven nations, of which Japan is a member, said in July that its members would begin bilateral security guarantees talks with Ukraine soon.