Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will announce the venue for hosting an annual summit of industrialized countries in 2016 on Friday at the earliest, government officials said Sunday.
Abe is expected to pick from eight cities that have expressed readiness to host the event.
Among those cities, the National Police Agency has reported to Abe's office that the city of Shima in Mie Prefecture, famous for its jagged coastline, and the town of Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture, a renowned summer retreat, would be "desirable" in terms of security.
The other six cities are Sendai, Niigata, Nagoya, Kobe and Hiroshima and Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture.