The European Union, a formal member of the Group of Seven, remains unmentioned in Japan's promotional video for the upcoming G-7 summit in Hiroshima despite its having raised the issue with Tokyo.
The almost two-minute-long official video, posted on the Foreign Ministry's G-7 website, includes the flags and iconic sceneries for all seven member nations but not the European Union, a member since 1981.
The ministry said that it has no plans to make changes although the European bloc raised the issue in mid-March.
"We depicted only the seven countries that hold the presidency due to restrictions of video expressions. We do not think it is inappropriate," said an official at the ministry's office handling issues relating to the summit.
"We cannot tell you the type of conversations we are having with individual countries," the official added.
The European Union is introduced as a member in another part of the site along with Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
Official videos of the past summits show there have been multiple cases of G-7 host countries mentioning EU participation, although it was left out of the video for the 2021 summit in Britain, chaired by its then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson after the country had left the regional bloc.
When Japan last hosted the G-7 summit in 2016, it also excluded EU leaders from its videos, and the European Union has been concerned about such moves by the Japanese government.
The European Union, including in its former form, have attended G-7 summits since 1981. Since 2010, it has been sending presidents of the European Commission and European Council to the gathering.
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