Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is planning to visit the United States from late July and hold a meeting with his counterparts from a coalition of non-nuclear weapons states in New York, sources familiar with the plan said Monday.

The ministerial gathering of the 12-member Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative is envisaged as Japan hopes to build the momentum for a successful conclusion of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference to be held in August.

At their last meeting in the Japanese city of Nagoya in 2019, the coalition members, including Japan, Australia and Germany, issued a statement calling on nuclear weapons states to report their nuclear capabilities to enhance transparency.

Hayashi is also expected to attend the first ministerial talks on economic policy involving Japanese and U.S. foreign and economy ministers in Washington, possibly on July 29, the sources said. The framework is called the economic "two-plus-two," akin to the security talks involving the countries' foreign and defense chiefs.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been considering attending the upcoming U.N. conference, which will be held from Aug. 1 to 26, to deliver a speech, according to the sources.

The previous NPT review meeting in 2015, in which Kishida participated as foreign minister, failed to produce a final document due to disagreements between nuclear and non-nuclear states.

There is some speculation that it will be more difficult to reach an agreement this time, as the world has seen Russia's nuclear saber-rattling amid its invasion of Ukraine.

As the only country to suffer the devastation of atomic bombings, Japan is concerned that a similar outcome at the August meeting could leave the NPT regime weaker, and Kishida is seen as eager to play a role in bridging between nuclear and non-nuclear states.

If realized, he would be the first Japanese premier to attend the conference, which is held among NPT member countries every five years in principle to review the treaty's implementation.

Elected from a constituency in Hiroshima, one of the two Japanese cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombings in 1945, Kishida has expressed a resolve to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

The NPT recognizes only the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- as nuclear powers, and requires them to commit to nuclear disarmament talks. While barring other countries from possessing the weapons, the treaty guarantees their right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Other known nuclear-weapon states such as India, Israel and Pakistan are not party to the pact.

As part of international efforts to curb nuclear weapons around the world, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in January last year, but its effectiveness has been in question as no nuclear weapons states have joined it.

Japan has not signed the nuclear ban treaty due to its reliance on U.S. nuclear forces for its security.

Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to launch the economic version of two-plus-two ministerial talks when they met online in January, as the two nations have been pushing for a vision of "free and open Indo-Pacific" with China's growing economic and military clout in the region in mind.

Hayashi and industry minister Koichi Hagiuda are expected to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to discuss economic security issues such as cooperation to strengthen supply chains for semiconductors and other critical commodities, the sources said.