Obama to visit Nov. 12-13

WASHINGTON--U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Japan from Nov. 12 to 13, the White House announced Wednesday.

Afterward, Obama will fly to Singapore to attend the Nov. 14-15 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit.

A visit by Obama to Hiroshima or Nagasaki is not on the itinerary. Despite repeated invitations from local authorities, no postwar U.S. president has visited the cities devastated by the U.S. atomic bombings in 1945.

In Tokyo, the first stop on the U.S. president's first Asian tour, Obama and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama are expected to discuss aid to Afghanistan and the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture.(IHT/Asahi: October 9,2009)