Japan to Withdraw World Heritage Bid for Amami-Okinawa Isles for Now

May 24, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government plans to withdraw its proposal for the addition of Amami-Okinawa islands to the UNESCO World Heritage List for now, with a view to resubmitting the application to the international cultural body next year after revamping it, informed sources said Wednesday.

The move is expected to be approved at a cabinet meeting as early as Tuesday, according to the sources.

The government aims to realize the addition of the islands in Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures, southern Japan, to the UNESCO list in summer 2020.

The temporary withdrawal comes after the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a UNESCO advisory body, recommended earlier this month that the World Heritage designation of the islands be postponed.

The IUCN highly rated the islands as they are inhabited by many endangered indigenous species including the Amami rabbit and the Okinawa rail, but pointed out that proposed sites in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa are isolated from each other.

The IUCN suggested that the Amami-Okinawa bid additionally include forest areas in the main Okinawa island's northern region that was returned from the U.S. military in 2016.

Following the recommendation, Environment Minister Masaharu Nakagawa told a press conference that it would be difficult to obtain World Heritage status for the Amami-Okinawa islands this year, as the addition of candidate areas requires a resubmission of the application and this year's decision-making meeting of the World Heritage Committee, another UNESCO body, is set to take place shortly, on June 24-July 4, in Bahrain.

If Japan aims for World Heritage designation in summer 2020, it is expected to submit a revised proposal to UNESCO in February 2019. This will be followed by a field survey by the IUCN and then a screening by the World Heritage Committee. Jiji Press