26 C O N T E X T 9 7 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 6 stop tour of the UK in 2005 to study industrial heritage sites in Swindon, Blaenavon, Ironbridge, Manchester, the Lake District and Liverpool. Following the tour, Keith Falconer (head of industrial heritage at English Heritage), John Rodger (world heritage site manager, Blaenavon, Torfaen County Borough Council) and John Hinchliffe (world heritage officer, Liverpool City Council) were invited to participate in a cultural exchange programme on industrial heritage in Japan. We gladly agreed to participate in the cultural exchange programme between Japan and the UK over ten days in January 2006, as part of a move to increase local, national and international recognition of its significance. The purposes of the Cultural Exchange Programme were to improve mutual understanding of the adaptive re-use of industrial heritage between Japan and the UK; to give UK practitioners an opportunity to visit a range of heritage sites in Japan and to study conservation principles and practice; to enable UK practitioners to give presentations on the adaptive re-use of industrial heritage in the UK; and to secure an initial international assessment of potential world heritage sites in Gunma Prefecture. Like many countries, Japan has a long and complex history and an extensive cultural heritage, as crudely suggested to us in the west by our somewhat sketchy knowledge of Shogun, Samurai and Geisha. However, it has traditionally focused conservation priorities for the built environment on its ancient sites, such as its sacred shrines and temples, some of which date from the 8th century. All ten cultural world heritage sites in Japan (except the Hiroshima Peace Memorial) date from the 17th century and most from very much earlier. A sophisticated system of protection for a diverse spectrum of cultural properties in Japan was established by the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties 1950. This categorises cultural properties into tangible cultural properties (including buildings, paintings, applied art works, calligraphy and books); intangible cultural properties (including drama, music and craft techniques); folk-cultural properties (including manners, customs, food, clothing, faiths and implements); monuments (monumental sites such as castles, palaces and tombs; scenic landscapes such as gardens, bridges, gorges and mountains; and places of high scientific value due to animals, plants and geological features); and groups of historic buildings (historic areas of scenic beauty integrated into their surroundings). Japan’s statutory recognition of the concept and value of intangible heritage was thus way ahead of the west and even UNESCO’s world heritage committee. Similarly, Japanese law placed great cultural value, as well as scientific value, on its indigenous plants, animals and various traditions such as its cuisine. These cultural properties have two levels of designation. The most important are ‘national treasures’ and those of lesser importance are ‘important cultural properties’. Surprisingly, only 3,700 individual buildings and structures have been designated as important cultural properties, compared with around 400,000 listed buildings in the UK. Of those, around 60 per cent are shrines and temples. The relatively rare survival of structures of cultural heritage is a result of destruction by earthquakes; fire (timber is the traditional building material); war-time destruction (most dramatically in the second world war but also during civil wars); and intensive urbanisation (as Japan has a population of 122 million and much of the country is mountainous, the country has seen a continuing programme of redevelopment). The conservation of cultural properties in Japan The delightful Hamarkyuteien Palace Garden in Tokyo with a backdrop of tall buildings.
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