Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum tickets and hours
Adult tickets to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum cost 200 yen, high school students pay 100 yen and younger children enter free. The museum opens at 7:30, but the first hour and the last hour need an online reservation. It closes at 18:00 to 20:00 depending on the month. Allow 1.5 to 2 hours inside.
A ticket to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum costs 200 yen for adults. High school students pay 100 yen, and junior high students and younger go in free. The museum opens at 7:30 all year, but entry in the first hour and the last hour before closing needs an online reservation. Closing time is 18:00, 19:00 or 20:00 depending on the month. Expect to spend 1.5 to 2 hours inside.
The Atomic Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Park around it are free and open to walk through at any time. The museum is where you need a ticket.
Ticket prices
| Visitor | Individual | Group |
|---|---|---|
| Adults (college students and up) | 200 yen | 160 yen each (30 or more) |
| High school students | 100 yen | Free (20 or more) |
| Junior high school and younger | Free | Free |
| Aged 65 and over | 100 yen with a passport |
Checked October 2026 on the museum’s hours and admission page. The fee covers the permanent exhibition.
Some travel sites still give an 8:30 opening or say the museum closes from 29 December. The official page says 7:30, and closed on 30 and 31 December.
Opening hours
| Months | Opening hours | Reserved early slot | Reserved late slot |
|---|---|---|---|
| March to July | 7:30 to 19:00 | 7:30 to 8:30 | 17:30 to 18:30 |
| August | 7:30 to 20:00 (21:00 on 5 and 6 Aug) | 7:30 to 8:30 | 18:30 to 19:30 |
| September to November | 7:30 to 19:00 | 7:30 to 8:30 | 17:30 to 18:30 |
| December to February | 7:30 to 18:00 | 7:30 to 8:30 | 16:30 to 17:30 |
Last entry is 30 minutes before closing. The museum closes on 30 and 31 December and for a few days in mid-February to change exhibits; in 2026 that closure ran from 16 to 21 February (museum notice).
How to buy tickets
You have two ways in.
On the day, in normal hours. Buy a ticket at the ticket machines or the counter. This is fine for most of the year if you arrive before 11:00 or after 15:00.
Online, in advance. The early and late slots can only be booked online, and the museum began selling tickets up to 90 days ahead when it introduced them in March 2024 because of long queues after the 2023 G7 summit. Each extended slot was capped at 300 people. Start from the museum’s homepage, which links to its current booking page, rather than a search result. The museum’s crowd leaflet “highly recommends” buying online when you can (City of Hiroshima leaflet, PDF).
In August the rules can tighten. For 8 to 16 August 2026 the museum went reservation-only, with a cap of 1,000 visitors an hour (Jiji Press via AdnKronos). Expect something similar in future summers, and book early for the 6 August anniversary.
A few GetYourGuide walking tours include the museum ticket in their price. They save you the queue at the counter, though not the queue at the door. Our best Hiroshima tours page lists them.
When to go
The museum’s own leaflet names 11:00 to 15:00 as the most crowded part of the day. The reserved first hour from 7:30 is the quietest time to see the exhibition. The last slot before closing is the next best.
The same leaflet marks these seasons as busy: cherry blossom season (late March to early April), Golden Week in early May, the school-trip seasons in late spring and autumn, 5 and 6 August, and Obon in mid-August. The museum runs live webcams of the queue on its congestion page, which is worth a look before you set out.
Visitor numbers keep rising. The museum recorded 2,580,926 visitors in the year to March 2026, a record for the third year in a row, and 945,618 of them came from overseas (Jiji via nippon.com).
Audio guide and free talks
The audio guide costs 500 yen per unit (450 yen each for 30 or more) and covers the permanent exhibition in about 70 minutes. You can skip or repeat any section. It is available in Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Russian, Thai, Arabic, Indonesian, Filipino and Ukrainian. Rent it at the counter on the first floor of the East Building (guide services).
Legacy Successor talks are free and need no booking. Legacy Successors are people trained to pass on a specific survivor’s account. Talks last 60 minutes in the East Building basement, with the English session at 13:00 daily from 1 January to 29 December (museum events). Our page on the hibakusha explains more about survivor testimony.
A free 22-minute testimony film runs every 30 minutes in the Video Theater on the East Building’s first floor.
Volunteer guides. The Hiroshima Peace Volunteers lead free English tours of the park, not the museum: museum tours are suspended. Park tours run at 10:45 and 14:00, take up to 10 people, and start from a desk near the East Building information desk. There are no fixed tours in July, August or September (Peace Volunteers).
Before you go in
- Photos: allowed for personal use without flash. No tripods or selfie sticks.
- Bags: large bags are not allowed in the exhibition. Coin lockers are on the East Building’s first floor.
- Quiet: no phone calls in the exhibition rooms.
- Children: the Main Building displays belongings of the dead and material on burns and radiation. The museum gives no age guidance, so parents decide.
Our museum guide describes what each building holds. For the route from the station, see how to get to the Atomic Bomb Dome.
