Japan sites recommended for UNESCO heritage list

marcelito - totally agree.

Once world heritage status was for exemplary significance in the history of the world with preservation being of utmost importance to prevent physical ruin and / or commercial despoilation.

Many of the sites now registered / nominated around the world are of significant local history and need to be protected by local or national govt laws. Such sites are not of world impact status.

Sadly $￥€ .....signs through commercialization of such sites is predominant.

It’s sad history that Christians were persecuted in the 16th and 17th century Japan. One should also not forget that some Christian warlords in Kyushu captured local Japanese residents and sold them off to Portuguese slave merchants while Jesuit missionaries looked the other way. That’s one reason Christianity was banned in Japan

What happened to the old Imperial Japanese era forced labour camps Japan wanted included in the UNESCO heritage sites list? Did they end up getting their wish?

Well, there's a first! I agree with all of the above.

All the controversy-mongers gone away for Golden Week?

Juat make the whole country a UNESCO cultural heritage site. Save all that paperwork and time; just one single application!

Not a Christian but I still find myself fascinated by these sites. Must visit some day.

Persecution goes in all directions but it's important to learn from history, so the recommendations get my vote, fwiw.

Amazing news! World Heritage Sights attract many domestic and foreign tourists, and boost economy to regional areas. Its a win-win.　Fingers crossed all these sights will win approval in June and tourists will begin flocking to these areas, boosting hotels, ryokan, restaurant and souvenire shops. Hiraizumi in Iwate was awarded the World Heritage Prize in 2011 and is now a famous tourist mecca, tourist increased times ten!

Approve them all, why not?

world heritage site is meaningless now - unesco has long since sold out.

i agree, rubberstamp the whole of japan as world heritage site and get it over with. Now meaningless.

Ganbare Japan!Today 10:40 pm JST

Amazing news! World Heritage Sights attract many domestic and foreign tourists, and boost economy to regional areas. Its a win-win.　Fingers crossed all these sights will win approval in June and tourists will begin flocking to these areas, boosting hotels, ryokan, restaurant and souvenire shops. Hiraizumi in Iwate was awarded the World Heritage Prize in 2011 and is now a famous tourist mecca, tourist increased times ten!

Everything you said highlights the problem with the system, it destroys what it was intended to protect.

All too many now are just localy important with little real "World" heritage value.

For all the criticisms of the UNESCO program, inclusion on the WHS can have positive effects; The islands of Amami Oshima are one of Japan's finest & underrated treasures, containing many endemic species found nowhere else in the world. UNESCO approval will absolutely help to boost tourism and fund their conservation efforts. They have managed to almost reverse the disastrous introduction of the mongoose, and the local people are being taught to really care about their unique ecosystem.

If you are planning a trip to Okinawa, go to Amami instead. It's a superb corner of Japan and they need your money.

Sign of the times. Mini world cups every other year, rock singers winning nobel literature prize, rappers getting the pulitzer, and so many WHS for sale. The prestige is gone along with any meaning there might have been once.

Most sites that want designation in Japan recently are unique in how they were either built on, or are just places where, others suffered forced labor and/or other persecution, but they don't want that persecution mentioned. A key factor in getting the recognition, though, is telling the full story so that people can learn, and you don't just get a tourist site devoid of meaning. Japan promised that with Gunkanjima island, swearing to put up a plaque that explained the forced labor of Koreans, but never put it up after recognition, with the government now publicizing their white-washed version that it never happened, in stark contrast to the agreement and acknowledgments made to get the status.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/12/08/national/history/testimony-denies-koreans-engaged-forced-labor-unesco-coal-mine-site-dubbed-battleship-island/

As such, Japan deserves none -- or they have no meaning if they get them. Fuji should be delisted, as should the aforementioned gunkanjima, but worst of all is we know how vapid they are in actual meaning because when other nations want to publish papers and documents citing wartime atrocities at the same time Japan wants the diaries of suicide bombers to be published, Japan throws a fit and then refuses to pay its dues unless it gets its way.

Anyway, I've been to these places, and the government wants to list the persecutions in a light very much like they celebrate Sugihara Chiune-san, praising his work and how he saved many Jews and brought great reputation to Japan, but don't want to mention that the Japanese government forbade his actions and punished him for the rest of his life, then took credit when he died and still do today. Same here; they don't want to touch upon the horrible torched the Christians endured for the enjoyment of the local chieftains, and the whimsy of Nobunaga (once Christian, then back again). They want to use it as a point to show how Japan ACCEPTED and changed through Christianity in this particularly place.

Like Gunkajima it'll get the status based on conditions they tell the truth, then they won't tell the truth.

GanbarreJapan, it seems just about everything to you only has value in how much money it generates for japan. Or am I missing something?

I can see the day coming when tourists start scratching their heads and asking, 'where in japan ISNT a World Heritage site?

great job for the UNESCO bods....

Cochise: "I can see the day coming when tourists start scratching their heads and asking, 'where in japan ISNT a World Heritage site?"

Exactly! Takes away from the places that actually deserve and require it, when every single Joe Tanaka and politician want their little nook to be a heritage site, claiming it's special and others should and will think so, too. I actually think the churches deserve recognition, but first and foremost as places Japan engaged in some very brutal torture and persecution. But they want to use the places again to celebrate themselves and diversity, when that is the absolute last thing they wanted at the time.