A Japanese council for cultural affairs endorsed on Monday Christian churches and related sites in the southwestern prefectures of Nagasaki and Kumamoto for addition to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2018.
Following cabinet approval, the Japanese government is set to submit the recommendation to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee by Feb. 1, 2017, for its screening around summer 2018.
Initially, the government recommended a total of 14 churches and other Christianity-linked assets seeking World Heritage registration in 2016.
But the International Council on Monuments and Sites, an advisory body to UNESCO, demanded Japan review the recommendation papers in its advance screening, saying a greater emphasis should be put on the historical context of the ban on Christianity in the country.
In February, the government withdrew the recommendation on the assets collectively called the Churches and Christian Sites in Nagasaki. It will resubmit documents to recommend the sites after review work by the two prefectures, in which two assets with no proven links with the period of the Christianity ban were excluded.
Source: News on Japan Image: ANN
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