SHIGA –
Hikone Castle in Shiga Prefecture has been formally chosen as Japan’s candidate for nomination as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage web site, advancing a marketing campaign that has continued for greater than 30 years and goals to safe inscription in the summertime of 2028.
The choice was made on September 3 at a gathering of the Council for Cultural Affairs held on the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Located in Hikone, Shiga Prefecture, the citadel was constructed within the early Edo interval and retains a surviving essential maintain designated as a National Treasure. It is considered an vital instance of the political and administrative system by means of which feudal lords ruled their domains through the Edo interval.
Hikone Castle was first positioned on UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage websites in 1992, and Shiga Prefecture and Hikone City have continued efforts to advertise its historic significance for greater than three a long time.
In 2024, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, or ICOMOS, which conducts preliminary technical and professional assessments of potential World Heritage nominations, concluded that Hikone Castle had the potential to qualify for inscription.
However, ICOMOS additionally recognized points that wanted to be addressed, together with easy methods to distinguish Hikone Castle from Himeji Castle, which is already a World Heritage web site, and easy methods to extra clearly display Hikone Castle’s distinctive worth.
Shiga Prefecture and Hikone City submitted their fifth draft nomination doc in May 2026 in response to these issues.
Hikone residents welcomed the most recent choice. “It has taken a very long time. I would be happy if it becomes a World Heritage site,” one resident mentioned. Another mentioned, “I’m happy. Hikonyan has been working hard, so I hope even more tourists will come.”
The Agency for Cultural Affairs will now submit Japan’s nomination to UNESCO, with officers aiming for Hikone Castle to be inscribed on the World Heritage List in the summertime of 2028.
If profitable, Hikone Castle would turn into Japan’s twenty eighth World Heritage property, following the Asuka-Fujiwara Archaeological Sites in Nara Prefecture, which had been inscribed in July 2026.