A Japanese daily has said that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is pushing to hold a one-on-one summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) Summit in Lithuania next week.

The Mainichi Shimbun said on Wednesday that Kishida intends to directly brief Yoon on the safety of the Fukushima wastewater discharge plan and seek his understanding.

The move is an apparent attempt to mitigate the public opposition in South Korea, with the release essentially imminent with the conclusion of all preparations following a final report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

If a Yoon-Kishida summit takes place on the margins of the NATO gathering, the two leaders will be meeting once again only two months after the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima.

Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is also coordinating talks with his South Korean and Chinese counterparts during the forum of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Indonesia next week to provide a further explanation on the wastewater release.