The government wants Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, to host the 2012 summit of Pacific island countries, its top spokesman said Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said at a news conference that the government is "making final arrangements" for Nago to be the venue for the spring 2012 summit, which involves the 16 countries of the Pacific Islands Forum as well as Japan.
The venue of the next summit will formally be decided at their ministerial-level meeting in Tokyo on Saturday, Sengoku said.
Japan began hosting Pacific islands summits in 1997 and has held one every three years since. The summits in 2003 and 2006 also took place in Nago.
The forum groups Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.