Nagasaki City Hall will invite U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to its peace ceremony on Aug. 9 to mark the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city, Mayor Tomihisa Taue said Friday.
"I would like (the U.N. chief) to convey to the world a message for the abolition of nuclear weapons in this symbolic year," Taue told a press conference.
The municipal government will send a letter of invitation to Ban — who has yet to attend the ceremony, though he did attend a similar ceremony in Hiroshima in 2010 — and will include expenses for the trip in its budget for fiscal 2015 starting April.
Nagasaki also plans to invite atomic-bomb survivors living outside Japan and relatives of those who have since died, the office said.