Donald Trump has signaled an openness to meetings with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ahead of the US president-elect’s Jan. 20 inauguration, a reversal from his team’s earlier claim that no meetings with foreign leaders would take place before that.

“I’d love to see the prime minister, and we will do that,” Trump said during a news conference Monday in Florida when asked about a possible meeting.

Pushed on whether such a meeting could come before the inauguration, Trump said the ball was in Tokyo’s court.

“They could, if they’d like to do that, I would do that,” he said.

Trump’s remarks came a day after he had dinner with Akie Abe, the widow of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

The dinner is the first known instance of a Japanese national meeting with the incoming US leader following his victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Trump hinted that discussion of Ishiba had come up during that meeting, with the president-elect saying that he had sent him a book “through Mrs. Abe.”

Her meeting has raised some eyebrows for coming before that of Ishiba, who was unable to meet Trump in the US last month despite reportedly making a number of requests.

Trump’s team said at the time that no meetings with foreign leaders would take place before his January inauguration, citing the Logan Act, which bars private citizens from negotiating diplomatic matters with foreign governments.

However, in the weeks that followed, Trump has met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Japanese officials have said they are working to arrange a meeting between Ishiba and Trump “as soon as possible.”