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This month’s selection from The Times U.N. World Heritage listing has its price

Mizuho Aoki mori prefectures and STAFF WRITER Island in Kagoshima Prefecture — were added to the World Heritage In June, news that Iwate Prefec- List the following year. ture’s historic Hiraizumi area would be added to UNESCO’s World Heri- How many World Heritage sites are tage List lifted the spirits of resi- there worldwide? dents in the Tohoku region after the The list has reached 936 sites in 153 March 11 Great East Japan Earth- countries, including 725 cultural quake and tsunami. heritage sites, 183 natural heritage Although Hiraizumi, like other sites and 28 mixed properties. towns in the area, saw tourism As the famed list is now approach- plunge after the catastrophe, visi- ing 1,000 sites, there have been calls tors have been flooding the area to focus less on expansion and more ever since, tripling from 98,067 in on conservation of the designated May to 292,640 in August, town au- sites. Some argue that expanding thorities say. the list will dilute the meaning of and Kamakura, Kana- World Heritage. gawa Prefecture, are the next two Thus, the committee’s advisory sites Japan will submit for World body has engaged in stricter pre- Heritage recognition in 2013. liminary inspections of the candi- Here are some questions and an- date sites, experts say. swers about the World Heritage pro- Including Hiraizumi and the Oga- Inspired sparks: Fireworks detonate behind , a World Heritage site in gram: sawara Islands, both inscribed on Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, on Aug. 15. KYODO the list this year, Japan is home to When did UNESCO’s World Heritage 16 World Heritage sites, including International Council on Monu- What advantage is there in winning program begin? the historic villages of Shirakawa- ments and Sites (for cultural heri- World Heritage status? The first 12 sites, including the go in Gifu Prefecture and Gokaya- tages) and the International Union World Heritage status is a huge ad- Galapagos Islands of Ecuador and ma in Toyama Prefecture, the for Conservation of Nature (for nat- vertising draw and a lure for tour- Yellowstone National Park in the Shiretoko Peninsula in ural heritages) — visit and evaluate ists, experts say. United States, were inscribed to the and historic monuments in . the proposed sites. “It is very difficult to show in fig- World Heritage List in 1978, after Based on their reports, the World ures the economic effects of being the U.N. Educational, Scientific and How does the listing process work? Heritage Committee makes a final named a World Heritage site. The Cultural Organization adopted the Sites can be only be nominated by judgment at its annual meeting. number of visitors will certainly in- World Heritage Convention in 1972 the country in which they exist. Once a property is designated, the crease and this has a multiplier ef- to protect and preserve cultural and Before a country nominates a site, host government must submit a fect, when considering accommoda- natural sites of outstanding univer- it must submit a tentative list to the monitoring report about the site to tions, souvenir shops and job cre- sal value. World Heritage Committee. That the committee every six years. ation,” Furuta said. The convention established its list names the sites it plans to rec- For example, after the Iwami World Heritage Committee, a rotat- ommend over the next five to 10 Who draws up the nomination docu- Ginzan Silver Mine in Shimane Pre- ing group of 21 nations, which meets years, UNESCO’s website says. ments in Japan? fecture made the list in 2007, tour- annually to decide on candidates From the list, a country can nomi- Local governments are supposed to ism increased, from 400,000 in 2006 nominated by UNESCO’s 188 mem- nate up to two sites per year to the generate the applications, but be- to over 813,200 in 2008, according to ber countries. committee. cause most don’t have experts on Oda City Hall. Japan signed the convention in In Japan’s case, there are 10 historical or environmental sites, “Other positive effects include the 1992 and its first four sites — Bud- other sites besides Mount Fuji and some ask outside experts to make attitudes of locals. Many develop a dhist monuments near Horyuji Kamakura on its tentative list wait- the documents for them. greater attachment to their home- Temple in , Castle in ing to be nominated. “The documents are voluminous. towns and become prouder,” Furuta Hyogo Prefecture, the Shirakami Before the committee makes its They need to include drawings of said. Mountain Range in Akita and Ao- decisions, its advisory bodies — the the proposed site, details about its components and many other data. What is the downside? In the case of Mount Fuji, it’s about The biggest threats to the Japanese 300 pages,” said Haruhisa Furuta, World Heritage sites are posed by head of The Sekaiisan Research In- the environmental and property stitute, a Hiroshima-based think damage being caused by the result- tank on World Heritage issues. ing increase in tourists. Translating the documents poses After the villages of Shirakawa-go another hurdle, he said. and Gokayama were inscribed in “They must be translated into 1995, tourism more than doubled English or French. Literal transla- from 600,000 a year to 1.5 million, tions are not good,” Furuta said, according to Shirakawa village. adding that it is very difficult to ac- Due to the increase, buses and curately express a site’s cultural cars crowd the local roads, altering background in a foreign language. the lives of the residents. Some also Shining symbol : The Golden Hall at Chusonji Temple, a World Heritage site in the Furthermore, it costs about ¥10 claim the increase in crowds, sou- Hiraizumi area of Iwate Prefecture, is housed in a sealed glass structure to help prevent million to complete the documents, venir shops and restaurants ruin the its decay. KYODO he said. tranquility of the area further.

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