Media reports indicated a sense of disappointment in Niigata, Japan, where the Sado Mines, a site of forced labor during the Japanese colonial period, are located. This comes after UNESCO’s advisory body recommended postponing the mine’s registration as a World Cultural Heritage site.
On June 7, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the recommendation for postponement surprised many, especially Japan’s local tourism industry. A representative of Japan’s local tour guide organization said, “We thought the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had a favorable view during their local investigation last year, but the outcome was unexpected.” The city of Niigata has been preparing for the mine’s World Heritage registration for approximately 30 years.
Matsuura Koichiro, who served as the 8th Secretary-General of UNESCO from 1999 to 2009, mentioned South Korea’s opposition as a reason for the postponement in an interview with Jiji Press. He argued that “a center should be built to explain the entire history of the mine, following precedent.” He added, “It is necessary to properly inform the people about the past working conditions with the number of deaths that occurred for Korean laborers.”
According to Jiji Press, the Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan stated that the ICOMOS, a UNESCO advisory body, recommended postponement while asking the Japanese side for additional data. ICOMOS decides on one of four recommendation options—registration, postponement, rejection, or non-registration—after document review and field investigation of World Heritage registration applicants.
ICOMOS asked Japan to exclude some areas with many elements from the Meiji era from the registration target and reconsider the buffer zone’s range for heritage protection.
Japanese media reported that while an immediate decision on registration has not been made, the Sado Mines’ registration status could be decided at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in India on July 21.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan stated, “We will respond so that a decision can be made at the World Heritage Committee,” mentioning that six cultural heritage sites that received a postponement judgment at last year’s committee had their registration decided.
Notably, a clash is anticipated because South Korea and Japan are among the 21 member countries of this World Heritage Committee.
The Sado Mines were a large gold mine that accounted for about 10% of the world’s gold production in the 17th century. The Japanese government attempted to register the Sado Mines as a World Cultural Heritage site in 2022, limiting it to the Edo period of the mid-16th to 19th centuries despite the South Korean government’s protest and excluding the fact that Koreans were forced to work there.
When ICOMOS excluded the Sado Mines from the review target due to insufficient documents, the Japanese government pushed for registration again.