Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will hold talks with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo on Saturday at the 11th meeting of its kind.

The three ministers paid a courtesy call to Ishiba on Friday evening, Tokyo's foreign ministry said.

At the meeting, Ishiba "stated that both China and the ROK are extremely important neighboring countries of Japan", a ministry statement said, referring to the Republic of Korea, South Korea's official name.

"Although difficult problems sometimes arise because we are neighboring countries, Japan hopes to engage in dialogues including on issues of concern and build a future-oriented cooperative relationship through pragmatic diplomacy," Ishiba told the ministers.

He said the three countries have "significant influence and responsibilities for regional peace and prosperity of the region" and addressing common challenges would benefit not only each nation but also the wider world.

Ishiba also held brief one-on-one meetings with China's Wang Yi and South Korea's Cho Tae-yul, the ministry said.

It follows a trilateral summit in Seoul in May at which the leaders agreed to deepen trade ties and reaffirmed their goal of a denuclearised Korean peninsula, in reference to nuclear-armed North Korea.

On Saturday, the top diplomats are expected to discuss economic cooperation as well as people-to-people exchanges and measures to combat falling birthrates.

Beijing and to a lesser extent Seoul and Tokyo have been affected by tariffs put in place by US President Donald Trump in recent weeks.

The ministers will also hold bilateral talks, and Japan and China will have their first so-called "high-level economic dialogue" in six years.