The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki asked Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday to create occasions for world leaders visiting Hiroshima for the Group of Seven summit in May to engage with local communities in both cities to understand the reality of nuclear war.
In response to the request by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue to realize the leaders' dialogue with atomic-bomb survivors and visits to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Kishida acknowledged that "trends worldwide are moving against the abolition of nuclear weapons," but added that he hopes to "create an opportunity to reverse them."
Amid heightened tensions since Russia's war against Ukraine began almost a year ago, Japan has chosen Hiroshima, which was devastated by a 1945 U.S. atomic bombing in World War II, as the venue for its turn to host the leaders' summit.