Japan to withdraw bid for world heritage listing of Kyushu sites

The decision to withdraw the recommendation of 14 locations in Nagasaki and Kumamoto prefectures for a later submission is expected to be approved at a Cabinet meeting next week, they said.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is unlikely to screen the resubmitted application before 2018.
A UNESCO advisory panel notified Japan in mid-January that the country's latest World Heritage candidate sites would not make it to formal screening as the explanations of the roles of the individual locations were insufficient.
The panel warned it would recommend that UNESCO listing of the sites, which the Japanese government sees as reflecting the 250-year history of Japanese people protecting Christianity amid persecution as well as its revival, be postponed before screening, the sources said.
The sites recommended by Japan in January last year include Nagasaki's Oura Church, the country's oldest church designated as a national treasure, and Sakitsu village in Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture, where some Christians hid to escape persecution.
The International Council on Monuments and Sites held inspections by experts between September and October, and was expected to give its evaluations to UNESCO around May for screening by the World Heritage Committee in July.