Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday he will consider setting up a meeting between Group of Seven leaders and atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima, when Japan hosts a summit of the grouping next year.
In a meeting with Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, Kishida, who has placed a priority on creating a world free of nuclear weapons, also expressed willingness to arrange a visit by the leaders to the peace memorial museum in Hiroshima, designed to show the realities of the 1945 atomic bombing.
"Although consultations with each government are necessary, I would like to consider (the plans)," Kishida said in a meeting at his office with Matsui and Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko Yuzaki.
The local leaders asked Kishida to make arrangements for the G7 leaders to meet with hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivors, and to visit the museum.
Kishida chose Hiroshima as the most fitting place for the G7 leaders' summit under the Japanese presidency in 2023 as the world now faces a nuclear threat by Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Among the G7 leaders, Kishida won the backing of U.S. President Joe Biden for the selection of Hiroshima when they met in person in Tokyo in May. The government has said the idea was supported by other members of the group, including nuclear powers Britain and France.
Kishida told Matsui and Yuzaki on Thursday that "concrete action" is needed by the G7 in the field of security and that Japan will take the lead in making the summit a step toward global peace amid the war in Ukraine.
The city of Hiroshima was devastated by an atomic bomb, dropped by the U.S. on Aug. 6, 1945, that killed an estimated 140,000 by the end of that year. The prime minister has his constituency in Hiroshima.