The Embassy of Japan in collaboration with the Japan Foundation will hold a photographic exhibition of `World Heritage in Japan' at the National Art Gallery on November 25th. The exhibition will remain open till January 5th, 2010, featuring a blend of great civilisations, a plenitude of unique cultures and natural history in the wake of four million years.
To preserve the great heritage of nature as well as the cultures of humankind, the World Heritage Convention is a document adopted in 1972 by a general session of UNESCO in Paris. Its aims to preserve for future generations, cultural and natural legacies with conspicuous and universal value.
As of October 1999, Japan and 157 other countries had signed the convention. By signing, these countries pledged to the world that they will preserve the legacies within their hands for future generations and with this pledge, they accepted the obligation and responsibility to co-operate with other countries in protecting common world heritage legacies of mankind.
Today, there are 721 World Heritage Sites in 124 nations (as of December 14, 2001). In 1993, the Shirakami-Sanchi Mountain Range, Yakushima Island, Himeji-jo Castle and the Buddhist Monuments of the Horyu-ji Temple Areas were registered as Japan's first world heritage sites.