The prefectural and city governments of Nagasaki are planning to confer honorary citizen awards on Kazuo Ishiguro, the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in literature who spent his childhood there, Kyodo News learned Tuesday.

Nagasaki Gov. Hodo Nakamura and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue are expected to visit Britain to hand him the awards, possibly in July, as Ishiguro is busy writing a new work and unable to come to Japan.

After Ishiguro won the Nobel prize, the local governments sent him congratulatory messages. In a letter he wrote in reply, Ishiguro said Nagasaki will always be a part of him, according to the prefectural government.

When the prefecture and city sounded him out about the honorary awards, Ishiguro said he would be pleased to receive them, the prefectural government said.

Ishiguro grew up in the city of Nagasaki until age 5 and moved to Britain with his parents in 1960. His 1982 debut novel "A Pale View of Hills," depicts a woman from Nagasaki reflecting on her life and the aftermath of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city.

(Kazuo Ishiguro (C) is applauded after receiving the 2017 Nobel Prize in literature on Dec. 10, 2017 in Stockholm)