Japan foreign minister discusses reconstruction, security with Ukraine's Zelenskiy

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met on Saturday and agreed to begin discussions on security guarantees and cooperate on reconstructing Ukraine's economy, the Japanese foreign ministry said.

The security guarantee discussions come after the G7 group of countries, of which Japan is a member, said in July that its members would begin bilateral security guarantee talks with Ukraine.

Hayashi also pledged support from both the public and private sectors in Japan to reconstruct Ukraine's economy in the surprise visit to Ukraine, where he was accompanied by executives of Japanese firms, including Hiroshi Mikitani, founder and chief executive Rakuten Group, the ministry said.

Japan is planning to host a meeting on the economic reconstruction of Ukraine early next year.

In talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Hayashi was set to reiterate Japan's firm support for Ukraine and the urgency of ending the Russian invasion with the help of the international community, the ministry said.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy in March.

(Reporting by Junko Fujita, Nobuhiro Kubo & Sakura Murakami; Editing by Michael Perry and Ros Russell)