Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday he intended to communicate closely with South Korea's incoming government to help bring bilateral ties to an even keel.
Relations between Japan and South Korea have been plagued with a territorial row and the legacy of Japan's 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean peninsula.
Hayashi made the comment to reporters ahead of his trip to South Korea next week to attend the inauguration of President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park, writing by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
