The World Heritage Committee,
1. Noting the agreement of the State Party to a modification of the original name,
2. Inscribes the Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range, Japan, on the World Heritage List as a cultural landscape on the basis of cultural criteria (ii), (iii), (iv) and (vi):
Criterion (ii): The monuments and sites that form the cultural landscape of the Kii Mountains are a unique fusion between Shintoism and Buddhism that illustrates the interchange and development of religious cultures in East Asia.
Criterion (iii): The Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in the Kii Mountains, and their associated rituals, bear exceptional testimony to the development of Japan’s religious culture over more than a thousand years.
Criterion (iv): The Kii Mountains have become the setting for the creation of unique forms of shrine and temple buildings which have had a profound influence on the building of temples and shrines elsewhere in Japan.
Criterion (vi): Together, the sites and the forest landscape of the Kii Mountains reflect a persistent and extraordinarily well-documented tradition of sacred mountains over the past 1200 years.
3. Recommends that the State Party undertake an inventory of the key elements of the site over the next five years in order to inform management. This should include an analysis of the wooded mountain landscape;
4. Further recommends that the State Party give consideration to setting up a coordinating body to oversee the management of the site and perhaps appoint an overall coordinator;
5. Requests the authorities to develop a more detailed management plan and medium-term strategy to address the sustainable management of both the natural and cultural aspects of the site. Such a plan might consider the appropriate placement of overhead wires and visitor facilities. This plan should be submitted to the World Heritage Centre by 1 February 2006 for examination by the Committee at its 30th session in 2006.