UNESCO seeks more details on Japan's Sado mine for heritage listing

Pressure from conservative lawmakers within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party regarding the government's stance prompted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to announce the nomination in January 2022. It was subsequently submitted a month later.

According to the Nikkei, this group of LDP lawmakers included former prime ministers Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso. 

Perhaps UNESCO should not accept World Heritage sites like this gold mine when they’re being forced on society by ultra-conservative LDP politicians like Taro Aso, particularly “given his family’s wealth was built by using Korean forced labourers during Tokyo’s colonial occupation of the region” (Julian Ryan, South China Morning Post, 2 Nov 2022).

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https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Comment/Will-Japan-rebuff-overture-from-South-Korea-s-new-leader

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3198143/will-taro-asos-past-overshadow-japan-and-south-koreas-bid-settle-wartime-history

Japan just want more and more landmark being registered for UNESCO heritage site without really considering past dark history.

https://apjjf.org/2022/5/johnsen

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/19/japan-and-south-korea-in-row-over-mines-that-used-forced-labour

It always seems like Japan is somehow gaming the system. Another mine this time? With the lax criteria Japan is allowed for award of sites, Europe should have thousands of sites. These stories always provoke greater interest in the sites of Europe actually, and more questions about the places that don't have listing. If you don't know Europe, maybe you should go there and see what I am talking about.

Deny the application. Next...

Pressure from conservative lawmakers within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party regarding the government's stance prompted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to announce the nomination in January 2022. 

These creeps wanted a UNESCO site to stick it to Korea and glorify Japan’s past brutal imperialism.

Say no, UNESCO.

Are those additionally seemed details kind of many colorful printed papers with watermarks and numbers on it and are put into brown envelopes?

So, if Japan reworks the Sado mine site to explain the involuntary importation of Korean workers and portray history of Japanese colonization of Korea in the 1800s, this might somehow qualify as a World Heritage Site, but why would it be so without a real discussion of the Korean workers?

Thousands of people died there from forced labour and they included not just Korean prisoners but also Japanese political prisoners as well as others. Basically anyone that the government and military considered worthless were sent there to work and die.

Another example of whitewashing history to gain another useless Unesco label. Not surprisingly, Shinzo Abe, strongly encouraged a 'history war team' and Kishida established it to downplay or outright deny any kind of wrong doing or atrocities.

But the UN is a shell of its former self so wouldn't be surprised if it gets the status.

UNESCO rejected Japan's Sado mine listing bid, explained any attempt must cover the history in full, not just certain period. In other word, Japan's forced labor history must be included in Sado mine's complete history and without it UNESCO will continue to refuse Japan's listing bid until Japan does so.

This is the truth of what actually happened at UNESCO. UNESCO panel recommends rejection of Japan's bid without inclusion of forced labor history.

https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/06/113_376128.html

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), one of the three advisories to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC), recommended "withholding" Sado mine's designation and demanded additional documents, the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs said.

In its recommendation in favor of Tokyo, ICOMOS had advised Japan to better reflect the whole history.

Under the rule, an inscription on the World Heritage list requires over two-thirds of the votes from the WHC member states, but it has been customary that the final decision is delivered upon consensus.

@Samit

It is always fascinating to see how various news sources allow their biases to influence their reporting. Same story, but each headline differs significantly.

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Kyodo: UNESCO seeks more details on Japan's Sado mine for heritage listing

NHK: UNESCO advisory gives Sado gold mines 2nd-highest evaluation for Heritage status

Jiji: UNESCO Panel Highly Evaluates Sado Gold Mine Site

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Korea Times: UNESCO advisory body withholds designation of Japan's Sado mine as World Heritage

Seeing how Japan seeks to prevent and control free spending tourists, I shudder to think how prisoners and forced labor were treated.

The Sado mines started around 1600. That would be about 343 years before POWs or forced labor. So there can be arguments both ways.