Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda brushed aside concerns that the U.S. decision to remove North Korea from its list of terrorism-sponsor states would hurt Tokyo's efforts to resolve its dispute with Pyongyang over its past abductions of Japanese.
Japan will continue talking with North Korea to resolve the abductions, which he said will continue to be a major concern for Tokyo.
"We will negotiate. Without negotiating, this will not be resolved," Fukuda said, noting such talks will include working with the United States and three other countries in the six-party North-denuclearization talks — Russia, South Korea and China.