Gov't to ask UNESCO to register Mt Fuji, Kamakura as World Heritage sites
TOKYO —
The government on Wednesday said it will submit a request to UNESCO by Feb 1 to register Mt Fuji and the city of Kamakura as World Heritage sites in 2013.
The education ministry said that Mt Fuji has religious significance and artistic value because of its numerous depictions in ukiyoe woodblock prints, Fuji TV reported.
The ministry nominated Kamakura for its historical importance as the seat of Japan’s first shogunate administration of samurai.
Japan already has 16 sites registered as World Heritage cultural sites, including the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, Himeji Castle, shrines in Kyoto, Nara and Nikko, as well as the Ogasawara Islands.
After receiving Japan’s formal registration, members of UNESCO’s advisory body, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, will inspect the sites in late summer and early autumn.
Japan Today
Order by Time Order by Popularity
13 Comments
Login to comment
-4
pamelot
Add UNESCO to the list with the IMF and the UN, of organizations that need to be unplugged.
2
smithinjapan
Why doesn't Japan just hurry up and ask UNESCO to claim the entire nation a World Heritage (site)? Seems that's what they want given the number of requests they make to UNESCO yearly.
-1
Ayler
Bit of a willy measuring contest to some Japanese. One elderly gentleman I talked to refused to believe Mexico has double the number of sites as Japan. Cheering for Kamakura but Fuji will probably get refused again for the same reasons. Clean it up!
-1
JeffLee
Kamakura?! It needs some boulevards, green grass, wider sidewalks, public benches and other infrastructure. The road from the beach to the big Buddha is hell: clogged with car and truck traffic and lined with narrow sidewalks. The brownish beach isn't very fetching either. How about a causeway there?
2
Greapper1
Better clean up all the garbage throw all over Mt. Fuji before submitting the request....
-2
lotus2
I hope Mt. Fuji and Kamakura get registered as World Heritage sites by UNESCO. They should be.
6
MaboDofuIsSpicy
The Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant should be a world heritage site. It has special attributes. It would be the only world heritage site you could not visit.
0
Al Stewart
I dont think that Kamakura can take that much attention. Too many people go there as is.
Also, Unesco needs to define what they mean by world heritage more clearly. If it does make it for being the first shogunate administration of samurai, isnt that just heritage of japan and not the world. There are other sites like that too. I feel they need to change the name.
0
japan_cynic
Beautiful Kamakura is best visited outside the main tourist times - try an early spring morning when the sakura are blossoming all along the main road (Wakamiya Oji / Dankazura), before the tourists arrive.
Fuji, well, it's Fuji. Best seen from a distance - and looking good today!
0
mastertigurius
LOL! @japan_cynic ...not to mention less painful to your toes when viewed from a distance.
I'm pretty sure there's a pretty strong link between Japan's endless flow of applications to UNESCO and the fact that the previous Director-General of UNESCO is Japanese (Koïchiro Matsuura).
I think Kamakura definitely belongs in the list...loved the place! Got a nice shot of myself together with best buddy Buddha as well! :) Not sure about Mt. Fuji. As mentioned above, the place should be cleaned up and given more regular care first...and that overpriced vending machine at the top really needs to go.
0
yagura
This very thing is sort of a cause celebre of conservative/nationalist bloggers in the United States. They claim that the U.S. Government petitioning for National Parks and other historical locations to be designated as World Heritage Sites and/or Man And Biosphere Reserves is just part of a conspiracy to cede sovereignty over these sites to UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). Just fear mongering in my opinion but quite a few people (especially among the anti-UN, anti-Obama, anti-anything non-American crowd) seem to believe it's true.
Is this also an issue among the rightists groups here in Japan?
1
zichi
They should also add Kamikochi, a place of outstanding natural beauty and one of the birth places of the country.
1
warnerbro
Fukushima's reactor row is indeed a prime candidate for this honour. It's unique in the world. What typically happens is that Japan gets these locations named heritage sites and then for a few years there's something of a boom in domestic tourism there. The infrastructure is woefully inadequate to handle the increased traffic, nature is destroyed, and then the government finds another candidate. The government's fantasy is that foreign tourists will increase but few foreigners know or care anything about world heritage sites (except for America's right wing lunatic fringe, apparently). It becomes a beggar thy neighbour situation. Twenty years ago every hamlet was trying to dig itself up a hot spring. Now it will become world heritage sites.
Back to top