The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki went to Tokyo together Monday to visit the embassies of nuclear-armed nations and urge their leaders to visit the two cities that were hit by atomic bombs during World War II.
Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima and Tomihisa Taue of Nagasaki made their cities' first joint requests at the embassies of Britain, France, Russia and Pakistan.
They were scheduled to visit and submit request letters to the embassies of the United States, China and India on Tuesday and send another request letter to North Korea through the mail.
U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Japan from Nov. 12 to 13 but is expected to visit neither of the two cities due to scheduling conflicts and in consideration of public sentiment at home.
The two cities devastated by the U.S. atomic bombings in August 1945 have repeatedly called for a nuclear-free world and are recently increasing joint activities, including a bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.