Decision 44 COM 7B.30

Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining (Japan) (C 1484)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/21/44.COM/7B.Add.2,
2. Recalling Decisions 39 COM 8B.14 and 42 COM 7B.10, adopted at its 39th (Bonn, 2015) and 42nd session (Manama, 2018) sessions respectively,
3. Welcomes the UNESCO/ICOMOS mission which took place in June 2021 to the Industrial Heritage Information Center (IHIC) in Tokyo;
4. Takes note with satisfaction that the State Party has met a number of its commitments and complied with a number of aspects of the Committee’s relevant decisions;
5. Strongly regrets however that the State Party has not yet fully implemented the relevant decisions;
6. Requests, in this regard, the State Party to fully take into account, in the implementation of the relevant decisions, the conclusions of the mission report, which include the following topics:
   1. Interpretive strategy showing how each site contributes to Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) and allows an understanding of the full history of each site,
   2. Measures to allow an understanding of a large number of Koreans and others brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions, and the Japanese government’s requisition policy,
   3. Incorporation into the interpretive strategy of appropriate measures to remember the victims such as the establishment of an information center,
   4. Best international practice for interpretation strategies on the interpretation of the full history of the property both during and outside the period covered by its OUV and in the digital interpretation materials,
   5. Continuing dialogue between the concerned parties;
7. Further requests the State Party to submit by 1 December 2022 to the World Heritage Centre an updated state of conservation report of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by World Heritage Committee at its 46th session.