The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum attracted a record 1.74 million visitors in the fiscal year that ended in March, apparently boosted by former U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to the city last May.
The number of visitors may also have grown due to the popular animated film "In This Corner of the World" ("Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni"), which depicted Hiroshima and the nearby city of Kure before and during World War II.
Museum director Kenji Shiga told a news conference on Monday that the number of foreign visitors hit a record high for the fourth consecutive year.
"We will continue our efforts to convey what the atomic bombing did to Hiroshima," Shiga said.
The museum saw an over 40 percent surge in the number of visitors in June and July of 2016 from a year earlier following Obama's historic visit in late May, according to the museum, which documents the aftermath of the U.S. atomic bombing on Aug. 6, 1945.
The number of visitors to the museum as of February surpassed the previous record of around 1.59 million set in fiscal 1991, when its main exhibition building reopened after a renewal.
The museum expects to mark a total of 70 million visitors by this summer since its launch in 1955.