Hamamatsu, Tsuruoka Added to UNESCO Creative Cities List

Paris, Dec. 1 (Jiji Press)--UNESCO added two Japanese cities, Hamamatsu and Tsuruoka, to its list of Creative Cities on Monday. Including the two, a total of 28 cities in 19 countries joined the list this time. Among them are the Finnish capital of Helsinki and Turin of Italy. Creative Cities are selected in seven categories--literature, film, music, crafts and folk art, design, media arts and gastronomy. Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, was designated in the music category partly because it hosts the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, a triennial event. Major musical instrument maker Yamaha Corp. <7951> has its headquarters in the city. Tsuruoka in Yamagata Prefecture, northeastern Japan, was designated as Creative City in the gastronomy category for its efforts to hand down local food culture using indigenous crops, including "dadachamame" beans, from generation to generation. UNESCO started the Creative Cities project in 2004. The list now has 69 cities. Besides Hamamatsu and Tsuruoka, four Japanese cities--Sapporo, Kanazawa, Nagoya and Kobe--are recognized as Creative Cities. END