South Korea and Japan have discussed ways to provide Koreans with more job opportunities in Japan where employment rates rose speedily, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

During his three-day trip to Japan till Tuesday, Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama, other senior government officials and heads of main business associations to discuss the issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

In the meetings, both the South Korean and Japanese sides shared the importance of increasing job opportunities for Koreans and agreed to work together to find ways to help more Koreans study and work in Japan and to provide Japanese firms with information about Koreans who seek jobs in Japan, according to the ministry. 

Cho also agreed with officials from Japan's education, labor and justice ministries to push for an employment program in which Korean third-year college students could study in Japan for a year and find jobs in the neighboring country, the ministry also noted.

Japan's business associations also welcomed the idea of bringing more talented Koreans into the Japanese employment market and agreed to make efforts to that end.

Japan's jobless rate stands at around 2.9 percent as of recently, sharply down from 4.3 percent in 2012 as its economic growth picked up traction.

The country's employment rate also rose to 97.6 percent for college graduates and 98 percent for high-school graduates, according to the ministry.

"The foreign ministry plans to continue to closely cooperate with Japan's related ministries in order to seek ways to help talented workers find more jobs in Japan and resolve the issue of youth unemployment here," it said.

The ministry added Cho also conveyed the South Korean government's will to improve ties with Japan during his meeting with the Japanese officials. (Yonhap)