Japanese Industrial Revolution Sites Inscribed on World Heritage List

Bonn, July 5 (Jiji Press)--The UNESCO World Heritage Committee on Sunday approved the inclusion of sites related to Japan's industrial revolution from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji era into the U.N. cultural agency's World Heritage list. The 23 sites in eight Japanese prefectures adopted at the committee's session in Bonn, Germany, include a coal mine on the island of Hashima, known as "Gunkanjima" (battleship island), in Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, and facilities of the former state-run Yahata steel works that are in Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp.'s <5401> Yawata Works in Kitakyushu in Fukuoka Prefecture, near Nagasaki. They became the 15th World Heritage cultural site selection in Japan, which thus has 19 sites on the World Heritage list in total including natural sites. Japan secured World Heritage cultural site inscription for the third consecutive year, following the Tomioka Silk Mill in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo, picked in 2014 and Mount Fuji in 2013. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a statement in Tokyo that he "is pleased with the news from the bottom of his heart." Japan is resolved anew to preserve and inherit the wonderful heritage, Abe said. In May, a UNESCO advisory panel recommended the inscription of the Japanese industrial revolution sites on the World Heritage list. However, South Korea, a member of the World Heritage Committee, has opposed the sites' registration, claiming that they include some facilities where Koreans were forced to work in the 1940s. Japan has insisted that the sites were recommended for their roles in Japan's industrial revolution in the period from the 1850s to 1910, which is different from the period of forced labor. After consultations, the two countries mended fences with an agreement that Japan will explain about their history including that during the Pacific war. Kuni Sato, Japanese ambassador to UNESCO, said in a speech after the committee's decision to put the sites on the list that Japan will promote the understanding that many people on the Korean Peninsula were forced to work at some facilities, expressing an intention to take such measures as establishing an information center on the matter. A government representative of South Korea said that the country believes that Japan will sincerely implement the measures, adding that this is an important step to remember the pain of victims and heal the wound of history. The other facilities that received World Heritage status include the Miike coal mine in Fukuoka Prefecture, the Hashino iron mining and smelting site, the oldest existing Western-style blast furnace in Japan, in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, and the Nirayama reverberatory furnaces in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. The Yahata steel works facilities and facilities in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s <7011> Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works in the city of Nagasaki were among those that became the first operating facilities on the World Heritage list in Japan. For UNESCO's inscription in 2016, Japan has recommended Nagasaki's churches and Christian heritage sites, which were recommended by the Council for Cultural Affairs at the same time as the industrial revolution sites. For 2016, based on France's recommendation, structures by French architect Le Corbusier, including the main building of the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, will also be screened for inclusion into the list. END