Hiroshima Shifts from Invitation to Notification for Peace Ceremony

Hiroshima, April 12 (Jiji Press)--The Hiroshima city government has said that it will shift from inviting countries to its annual peace ceremony on Aug. 6, when the western Japan city was hit by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945, to notifying them of the event.

The city will notify a total of 195 countries and regions and the European Union. They will include Russia and Belarus, both of which have not been invited since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

Hiroshima has so far invited ambassadors from all countries that Japan recognizes as states, as well as the EU delegation and leaders from countries that have not signed or entered the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

"We want (countries) to apply to attend (the peace ceremony) after fully understanding and accepting the ceremony's purpose of spreading the 'soul of Hiroshima,'" Mayor Kazumi Matsui said at a regular press conference Friday.

The city plans to send out a notice around late May.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]