The city of Sendai is the leading candidate to host a Group of Seven finance ministers' meeting prior to the industrialized countries' summit in Japan next year, government sources said Tuesday.

Sendai, part of the region devastated by the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011, is among eight sites seeking to host the summit. The government said earlier Tuesday the 2016 summit in Mie Prefecture will be held on May 26-27.

G-7 ministerial meetings are typically held a few months earlier than summits.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering hosting at least eight ministerial meetings before the summit, including on the environment, energy and disaster mitigation.

Hiroshima is being considered for the foreign ministerial meeting.

In addition to the eight sites that offered to host the summit, another eight cities, including Sapporo and Kyoto, want to host a G-7 ministerial meeting next year, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The G-7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.