Photo/Illutration Visitors offer prayers at a monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on Oct. 12, as a line forms outside the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum in the background. (Jun Ueda)

HIROSHIMA—The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum has reached a new milestone, surpassing 2 million visitors in a single fiscal year for the first time since its opening in 1955.

The total number of visitors to the museum since April of last year reached 2,003,718 on Feb. 15, according to the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation.

This record-breaking achievement comes shortly after another milestone by the museum, which highlights the legacies of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city.

On Feb. 9, the venue surpassed its previous annual record, set in fiscal 2023, with a total of 1,983,983 visitors.

The foundation attributes the surge in visitors to several factors, including heightened global interest in peace amid an uncertain international climate and an increase in visitors to Japan due to the weak yen.

By mid-March, the museum is also expected to surpass 80 million visitors in total since its opening.

As the number of visitors grows, the municipal government is taking steps to address the increased congestion at the facility.

As part of these efforts, a new exhibition aimed at students on school trips will open in fiscal 2025 in the basement of the museum's East Building.

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