Survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have expressed hopes that US president-elect Joe Biden will promote nuclear disarmament.

Speaking to NHK on Sunday, the acting leader of the Hiroshima branch of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, Mimaki Toshiyuki, offered congratulations on Biden's projected win.

The head of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICAN, has urged Japan to launch discussions on whether to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to the adoption of the treaty.