Foreign ministers from Japan, China and South Korea will meet in Tokyo for two days this week to discuss cooperation, the countries said on Monday, after tension among them raised doubt about prospects for talks.

Relations between the three big Asian economies are often difficult with the legacy of Japan's wartime aggression affecting ties between it and China and South Korea, territorial disputes hurting links between Japan and China, and Japan and South Korea, and China suspicious of the others' U.S. ties.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will hold a dinner for his Chinese and South Korean counterparts, Wang Yi and Yun Byung-se, on Tuesday, with an official trilateral meeting set for Wednesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

It will be the first visit to Japan by a Chinese foreign minister since the Japanese government took over three of the tiny islands at the center of a dispute with China, from private Japanese owners in September 2012.

The nationalization of the islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, infuriated China.

Last month, a senior Japanese official said Japan was considering hosting the annual trilateral meeting in August, but a flare-up in Sino-Japanese tension over the territorial dispute stoked worry the talks might not take place.