Overview

• A record-high 120 countries and regions, including nuclear-armed states and conflict parties, participated in the city-sponsored ceremony at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.
• Matsui framed dialogue-based trust-building as crucial to averting nuclear catastrophes, urging states to confront the hibakusha legacy.
• Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met with hibakusha representatives and said Japan would pursue nuclear disarmament within the NPT framework instead of signing the Prohibition Treaty.
• Registered atomic-bomb survivors dipped to 99,130, with an average age of 86.13 years, intensifying calls to document firsthand testimonies before living memory fades.
• Preparations are underway for Nagasaki’s 80th commemoration on August 9, featuring 11-year-old exchange testimony speaker Kanade Hosoi whose address will be livestreamed.