Japan, China to hold first security talks in four years

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese and Chinese officials will hold their first security talks in four years in Tokyo later this month, Japan's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, the latest sign of a possible improvement in ties strained by a territorial dispute.

Relations between the world's second- and third-largest economies have been damaged by conflicting claims to a group of tiny East China Sea islands and the legacy of Japan's wartime occupation of its larger Asian neighbour.