Japan's welfare ministry has decided to ask all living atomic bomb survivors nationwide to submit accounts of their experiences to help pass on their memories to future generations.



The request to survivors called hibakusha comes as 2025 marks 80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki were atomic-bombed toward the end of World War Two.



The ministry will send survey sheets to survivors through prefectural authorities in April or later. It plans to let them freely describe their experiences, such as what they saw right after the attacks and how they survived after the war.



The ministry is considering publicly displaying collected accounts at the Hiroshima and Nagasaki national peace memorial halls for atomic bomb victims.



The ministry says that as of the end of last March, 106,825 people held hibakusha certificates and were an average of 85.58 years old.



The ministry has solicited accounts from survivors once every decade, with a total of more than 130,000 responses. It now intends to seek stories annually.



The ministry says it will try to preserve the atomic bombing accounts as memories of the war are gradually fading.