"Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen" star Piko Taro accepted a request Wednesday to attend a U.N.-related event in New York later this month to promote the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, aimed at eradicating poverty and inequality.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida asked Piko Taro in a meeting at the ministry to attend the reception to be hosted by Japan on the sidelines of the U.N. political forum on SDGs at the U.N. headquarters in mid-July, a ministry official said.

Kishida and Piko Taro, whose catchy PPAP song became a viral hit last year, are expected to attend the reception together after the minister has explained Japan's efforts to achieve the SDGs, the official said.

Piko Taro recently released a promotional video to publicize the development goals in Japan in which he wears his trademark leopard-print scarf and sings the PPAP song. This time, however, PPAP in the lyrics stand for "Public-Private Action for Partnership."

"I have a pen, I have a book, U.N., education," he sings, conveying the key concepts of the SDGs which set numerical targets to be reached by 2030 in 17 fields including poverty, health and education. The goals were adopted at a U.N. summit in 2015.

In 2016, the little-known Japanese comedian's "Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen" video gained global popularity and was recognized by Guinness World Records as the shortest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)