"There was an encounter after dinner," said Noriyuki Shikata, deputy cabinet secretary for public relations. "They agreed to improve relations, to resume exploring ties."
There was no immediate confirmation from the Chinese side. The two had been tipped for a possible meeting over their ongoing territorial spat over East China Sea islands as both were in Brussels to attend an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) gathering 46 nations.
Asia's two largest economies have been embroiled in a tense diplomatic standoff since Japan's arrest on September 8 of a Chinese trawler captain near disputed islands in the East China Sea.
According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, Kan and Wen agreed that "deterioration in bilateral ties over maritime collisions is not desirable," and decided to "hold high-level bilateral talks on regular basis."
The agency said Kan told the Chinese premier that the islands were an "integral part of Japan's territory and that no territorial issue exists there."
Japan says their sovereignty dates back to the late 19th century and that Chinese interest in the isles dates to the development of petroleum resources on the East China Sea continental shelf in the late 1970s.