Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to Introduce Online Ticket Service; Record Breaking Number of Foreign Visitors

The Yomiuri Shimbun

2:00 JST, February 13, 2024

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, located in Hiroshima City’s Naka Ward, will introduce an online ticket service on Friday.

The G7 Hiroshima Summit held in May 2023 brought heightened attention to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Coupled with the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the number of visitors has increased. In particular, the number of foreign visitors in the current fiscal year reached 540,519 as of December, surpassing the previous record set in fiscal 2019.

Queues of up to two hours to enter the museum in August caused complaints.

Currently, tickets are only sold at the museum’s on-site ticket counters. An online ticket service will be available from Friday for people visiting on March 1 or later. Upon purchase, visitors will receive a QR code for entry on their smartphones. The service will be available in 15 languages, including English and French.

Alongside the introduction of the new service, the museum will extend its opening hours by one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening starting in March. Visitors who have reserved tickets will be able to enter during these extended hours. Additionally, live footage showing the queue for entry will be made available on the museum’s homepage.