A Campaign to Nominate World Heritage Sites and the Creation of a Certification System for Cultural Properties -From the Perspective of the “Chain of Rating the Properties”-

摘要

As of July 2016, the number of World Heritage sites is 1052. Currently, there are 20 sites in Japan. In recent time, Japanʼs interest in World Heritage sites has been growing. In particular, the Japanese government has achieved the registration of Japanese sites in the World Heritage List for four consecutive years. The purpose of this study is to clarify the process through which cultural properties is assigned cultural value by comparing it with other cultures. It focuses on the public offering of World Heritage sites that was promoted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, government of Japan, in 2006 and 2007 and the new registration system of cultural properties that was established during the same period. According to The Asahi Shimbun, the number of articles in its regional editions on World Heritage sites has been increasing since 1996, and the first peak occurred in 2007. The reason why World Heritage sites garnered much attention among the local society is that the Japanese government decided to ask the local governments to nominate World Heritage sites in 2006. The investigation and maintenance of the cultural properties in relevant sites so as to enter them on the list is done as part of a regional development campaign.In addition, the Agency classified the sites proposed by local governments into tentative list. Furthermore, it creates new titles according to cultural landscape, industrial heritage, and “Japan Heritage” for cultural properties in Japan. In this manner, it inevitably promotes the automatic rating of such site. Critically, the process of the inscribing the World Heritage List can be considered a “chain of rating the properties”．