Japan has sounded out Canada about the possibility of Stephane Dion becoming the first sitting foreign minister from a Group of Seven country to visit Nagasaki, to boost efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons, sources said Tuesday.

The Japanese government wants more world leaders to make a pilgrimage to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, both A-bombed by the United States in World War II, following U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to the latter in May to raise momentum toward abolishing nuclear weapons, the sources told Kyodo News.

Tokyo is eager to get Dion to tour the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and speak with hibakusha during the visit, they said.