Decision 43 COM 7B.66

Fujisan, sacred place and source of artistic inspiration (Japan) (C 1418)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/19/43.COM/7B,
2. Recalling Decision 40 COM 7B.39, adopted at its 40th session (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016),
3. Acknowledges that the State Party is continuing to carry out its management and protection duties within the agreed vision for the property, which aims to find harmonious solutions to the conflicting needs of access and recreation and of maintaining the spiritual and aesthetic qualities of the mountain on the other hand;
4. Also acknowledges that the property and its buffer zone are managed “as an entity” and “as a cultural landscape”, as requested by the Committee, and in ways that promote sustainable tourism and land use, and that the various components of the management structure are now fully operational;
5. Welcomes the substantial progress that has been made across all the six specific areas identified at the time of inscription, including:
   1. The detailed research work, carried out in relation to understanding the needs and movement of visitors on the upper access routes, and its use to ensure a “desired style of Fujisan ascent” for different user groups to help control erosion and promote an approach more sympathetic to the spiritual aspects of the mountain,
   2. The detailed research into the pilgrim sites and routes in the lower slopes that has fed into an interpretation strategy to encourage visitor access to these, to promote understanding of the links between the upper and lower routes, and to spread the visitor load,
   3. The two new Fujisan World Heritage Visitor Centres that not only provide information and interpretation, but also play a larger role as centres for undertaking, utilizing and promoting research as well as educational work,
   4. The response to the need to control the scale and location of buildings more tightly, which was identified at the time of inscription, especially on the lower flanks of mountains; this response encompasses short-term measures related to visual harmonization, along with further development control measures for more “fundamental solutions”;
6. Requests the State Party to provide, once it is available, further information on the proposed new development control measures, along with details and an overall timeframe for their implementation, for review by the World Heritage Centre and Advisory Bodies;
7. Also welcomes the work undertaken by the State Party to share Fujisan’s conservation and management practices at meetings in China and Mongolia and with other similar property, as well as around Japan;
8. Also requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 December 2020, a report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for review by the Advisory Bodies.