ABSTRACT
Heritage attracts a striking level of attention among the general public. The reports of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s advisory bodies, the political arm-wrestling at the annual sessions of the World Heritage Committee, and the final decisions taken there are covered at length in Japanese media. The interplay of heritage and religion has long been ignored by heritage scholars and scholars of religion alike, but the topic is rapidly gaining importance that heritage has become a core societal category worldwide. Modern Japanese heritage laws were not merely of domestic significance. Ever since its beginnings in the late Meiji period, prewar Japanese heritage policy developed in an expanding Japanese empire. Japan’s heritage preservation regime was strengthened in the late 1960s. From the time Japan began applying for World Heritage status, a large proportion of listed sites have been religious. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
