The leaders of Japan and South Korea have agreed to restart frequent reciprocal visits, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday.

"We agreed on the resumption of shuttle diplomacy by leaders of Japan and South Korea, no matter what the format" of the trips, Kishida said as he met President Yoon Suk Yeol in Tokyo.

The two countries earlier agreed to drop an almost four-year-old trade dispute on high-tech materials.

Yoon's visit to Tokyo – the first such summit since 2011 – comes after he proposed that South Korean companies compensate plaintiffs who won court cases accusing Japanese firms of using forced labor during Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.

That plan was welcomed in Tokyo and praised by the White House as "groundbreaking," but several key victims have already rejected the proposal, and polls show it is generally unpopular in South Korea.

About 59 percent of the respondents oppose the plan because of the lack of an apology and compensation from Japan; 64 percent do not consider Yoon's proposed compensation plan adequate, a Gallup Korea survey showed. Sixty-four percent of the respondents said South Korea did not need to rush to improve ties with Japan if there were no change in Tokyo's attitude, according to the poll.

The government's human rights body said the proposal is not appropriate for the victims by international standards.

"Since the issue of compensation for victims of forced labor is an important issue for restoring human dignity, all countermeasures must consider the emotional and psychological damage suffered by the victims," Song Doo-hwan, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, said in a statement last week.

(With input from AFP, Reuters)