Which declaration did Japan say it had accepted in Hirohito's 1945 surrender broadcast?

Japan said it had accepted the Potsdam Declaration in Hirohito's 1945 surrender broadcast.

The Potsdam Declaration was issued on July 26, 1945, by the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. It called for Japan's unconditional surrender and outlined broad conditions for the country's postwar future. The Soviet Union joined the declaration after entering the war against Japan in August.

Hirohito's radio address stated that Japan had accepted the terms of the joint declaration. Because the speech used formal language and avoided a direct conversational statement that Japan had surrendered, some listeners were initially unsure of its meaning. The declaration therefore became the key diplomatic reference behind the broadcast.

The announcement did not itself replace the later legal surrender document. On September 2, Japanese representatives signed the Instrument of Surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. That document explicitly accepted the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration and transferred authority to the Allied occupation command.