The US Secretary of State is under pressure to make progress on the North Korean nuclear program. There has been little movement on this front since a historic June meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.
Pompeo arrived in Tokyo on Saturday on the first leg of his three-day tour of East Asia, which will also take him to Pyongyang and Seoul.
The US secretary of state was holding talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, to discuss the Abe administration's North Korea policy before heading to Pyongyang on Sunday.
Last month, Abe hinted that he was prepared to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "to break the shell of mutual distrust."
The Japanese government wants Washington to safeguard its regional interests in North Korea peace negotiations.
North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens is an emotional issue for many in Japan. Scores of people were kidnapped from Japan and used to train North Korea's spies in Japanese culture and language.
But Pompeo will face his real diplomatic test in Pyongyang, which many analysts say is only buying time on its controversial nuclear program.
There has been little progress on the nuclear issue since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks in Singapore in June.
Read more: Donald Trump cancels Mike Pompeo's North Korea trip, citing lack of progress
Since the Kim-Trump summit, the North Korean regime has suspended nuclear and ballistic missile tests, freed three American prisoners and dismantled parts of tunnel entrances at a nuclear site. The US says it will not remove sanctions against North Korea until a complete denuclearization of the peninsula.
North Korea's foreign minister said last week that Pyongyang will not disarm without first receiving concessions from Washington.
Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Ri Yong Ho said North Korea had taken "significant goodwill measures" in the past year but had not seen "any corresponding response" from the United States.
Speaking to reporters on his plane on Friday, Pompeo said his mission was to "make sure that we understand what each side is truly trying to achieve … and how we can deliver against the commitments that we made" in Singapore.
Pompeo said Friday that he would at least try to develop options, the location and timing of a second meeting between Trump and Kim.
"I'm not sure of we are going to get a whole lot of progress other than details of the next Trump-Kim meeting," said Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst on Korea and now a senior fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "I think the North Koreans will try and save the actual negotiations for when Kim meets with Trump."
