"Given the increasingly severe international situation, I believe we may truly be at a turning point in history," Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said on Saturday at the start of the meeting in Tokyo with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul.
The three agreed to accelerate preparations for a summit in Japan that would also include talks on how Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul could tackle declining birthrates and ageing populations, Iwaya said in a joint announcement after the meeting.
The first gathering of the countries' foreign ministers since 2023 comes as US President Donald Trump upends decades-old alliances, potentially opening the door for China to forge closer ties to countries traditionally aligned with Washington.
"Our three nations have a combined population of nearly 1.6 billion and an economic output exceeding $US24 trillion ($A38 trillion)," Wang said.
"With our vast markets and great potential, we can exert significant influence."Â
China, he said, wanted to resume free trade talks with its neighbours and expand membership of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
However, deep divisions remain. Beijing is at odds with Tokyo and Seoul on several key issues, including its support of North Korea, its intensifying military activity around Taiwan, and its backing of Russia in its war with Ukraine.
US allies Japan and South Korea, which each host thousands of US troops, share Washington's view that China - the world's second-largest economy - poses a growing threat to regional security.
Cho said he had asked China in the meeting to help persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
"I also stressed that illegal military co-operation between Russia and North Korea should stop immediately, and that North Korea should not be rewarded for its wrongdoings in the course of bringing about the end of the war in Ukraine," he said.
Iwaya is to meet separately with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts, including the first high-level economic dialogue with Beijing in six years.
That meeting would include discussion of a ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed by China after the release of waste water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant from 2023, Iwaya said this week.
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