Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has left Tokyo to attend the review conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The meeting is set to begin in New York on Monday.

Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to take part in an NPT review conference.

Before his departure Kishida said, "Given the divisions in the international community over nuclear disarmament and the nuclear threats posed by Russia, I am really concerned the international momentum to realize a world without nuclear weapons is regressing significantly."

Kishida is expected to urge nuclear powers to be more transparent about their nuclear capabilities.
He is also likely to announce the launch of a UN fund to help younger generations visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities hit by atomic bombs 77 years ago.