The Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki expressed appreciation on Tuesday for a U.N. statement on nuclear disarmament, which the Japanese government approved for the first time, local officials announced.

The cities also urged 125 countries including Japan to sincerely step up efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons from the world.

Those opinions were voiced separately by both mayors of the cities subjected to atomic attacks--Kazumi Matsui of Hiroshima and Tomihisa Taue of Nagasaki--on Tuesday following Monday's announcement at the U.N. General Assembly's First Committee in New York.

"It is in the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again, under any circumstances," the committee said in the announcement.

Matsui said in a press statement that he welcomed the government's first-ever decision to support the statement and expressed his appreciation for the increasing number of other supporting countries.

"Hiroshima is heartened that the Japanese government has finally backed the statement, and hopes this statement will further contribution to discussions at the next Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) Ministerial Meeting in Hiroshima scheduled for 2014," he said.

Meanwhile, Nagasaki's Taue told reporters that after years of the city's repeated calls to label nuclear weapons as inhumane, he and atomic bomb victims welcomed the U.N. document, hoping the Japanese government, which has now shifted from its opposition to earlier statements, will accelerate efforts to guide more countries toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.