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Mayor Yasushi Chibana of Kunigami, Okinawa Prefecture, celebrates Monday as a UNESCO advisory panel recommends that the area and other islands in southwestern Japan be added to the list of natural World Heritage sites. | KYODO
Kyodo May 11, 2021
A UNESCO advisory panel has recommended that a chain of islands in southwestern Japan with dense subtropical forests be added to the list of natural World Heritage sites, according to government officials.
Southwest Japan islands set to become World Heritage site
May 11, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
Mayor Yasushi Chibana of Kunigami, a village in the northern part of Okinawa Island, celebrates on May 10, 2021, as a UNESCO advisory panel recommends that the area and other southwestern Japan islands be added to the list of natural World Heritage sites. (Kyodo) TOKYO (Kyodo) A UNESCO advisory panel recommended on Monday that a chain of islands in southwestern Japan with dense subtropical forests be added to the list of natural World Heritage sites, government officials said. The listing of the 43,000 hectare area, comprising Amami-Oshima Island and Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture as well as the northern part of the main Okinawa Island and Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture, is expected to be officially approved during an online World Heritage Committee session between July 16 and 31.
Southwest Japan islands set to become World Heritage site
A UNESCO advisory panel recommended on Monday that a chain of islands in southwestern Japan with dense subtropical forests be added to the list of natural World Heritage sites, government officials said.
The listing of the 43,000 hectare area, comprising Amami-Oshima Island and Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture as well as the northern part of the main Okinawa Island and Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture, is expected to be officially approved during an online World Heritage Committee session between July 16 and 31.
Photo taken in April 2018 shows a mangrove forest at Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture. (Kyodo)
Spectators cheer as a torch bearer runs through a street in Amami, Kagoshima Prefecture, on April 27. (Satoshi Okumura)
KAGOSHIMA Amami city officials who controlled traffic at the recent Tokyo Olympic torch relay on Amami-Oshima have tested positive for COVID-19 and become part of the first infection cluster on the remote island.
The Kagoshima prefectural government on April 29 confirmed that four men and five women who went to an eatery that provides entertainment in the city of Amami tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Two of the four are employees, one in his 20s and the other in his 30s, who work at the city hall’s main building, the city government said.