Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida plans to make a three-day visit to France and Italy from March 19 for talks with his counterparts in the two countries ahead of the Group of Seven foreign ministers' meeting in April in Hiroshima, a government source said Friday.
In separate talks with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault and Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Kishida is eager to address nuclear disarmament issues to be discussed at the G-7 meeting.
The Kishida plans to invite them to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, which suffered the U.S. atomic bombing in 1945, while they are in the city for the April 10 to 11 talks, according to the source.