Japan Submits 2024 Sado Mine World Heritage Nomination
"Japan Must Acknowledge Forced Labor History of Koreans Itself"
[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hee-jun] On the 20th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed regret over Japan's application to re-register Sado Mine in Niigata Prefecture, a site of forced labor of Koreans during the Japanese colonial period, as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In a spokesperson's statement released that day, the Ministry said, "We express regret over the Japanese government's application to register 'Sado Mine,' which has a similar background, as a World Heritage site again while the follow-up measures related to the 'Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution' registered in 2015 have not been properly implemented."
It added, "We once again urge Japan to promptly implement the follow-up measures promised by itself at the time of the registration of the Meiji Industrial Revolution sites and the repeated decisions of the World Heritage Committee," emphasizing, "The government will continue to work with UNESCO and the international community to ensure that the entire history, including the painful history of forced labor during wartime, is reflected."
On the same day, Lee Do-hoon, the 2nd Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, summoned Daisuke Namioka, Economic Counselor and Charg? d'Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Korea, to the Seoul Sejong-ro office to protest the reapplication for registration. When Japan officially decided to promote the registration of Sado Mine as a World Heritage site last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned Koichi Aiboshi (相星孝一), the Ambassador of Japan to Korea, to protest. It is reported that Ambassador Aiboshi is currently temporarily back in Japan and absent from Seoul.
The Japanese government submitted a nomination dossier to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris the day before to register Sado Mine as a World Heritage site in 2024. Japan had applied to register Sado Mine as a World Heritage site in February last year, but UNESCO did not proceed with the review, citing insufficient explanations related to the heritage in the documents submitted by Japan.
In response, the Japanese government resubmitted a tentative nomination dossier in September last year. Since a tentative nomination was submitted, the formal nomination was virtually a scheduled step, and the application deadline was the 1st of next month. While promoting the registration of Sado Mine as a World Cultural Heritage site, the Japanese government limited the target period of the heritage to the 16th to mid-19th century, deliberately excluding the forced labor of Koreans and has been criticized for evading the 'entire history' of the heritage.
The government has emphasized that before Japan promotes the registration of Sado Mine, it should first keep the promise it made itself to inform the history of forced labor of Koreans when the Meiji Industrial Revolution sites, including Hashima Island, were registered in 2015.
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