Sophia Magazine vol.8 / WINTER 2018

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5Graduated from the University of Tokyo and joined the Foreign Service. Served as Deputy Secretary-General of the Organi-zation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Contributed to cultural promotion in various capacities includ-ing former Japanese Government Commissioner of Cultural Af-fairs. Currently the Special Envoy for United Nations Affairs and Director of the Kondo Institute for Culture & Diplomacy. Seiichi Kondo310was most inconvenient. It is tricky when politics get in-volved in a cultural encounter! In the world today, there is no end to conflicts fought in the name of religion. This in-scription of the Hidden Christian Sites as a World Heritage Site represents an appreciation by UNESCO of Japanese-style “co-existence of religion” and appears to pose a ques-tion to the world: “How about doing things this way?”Kondo: The preamble of the UNESCO Constitution con-tains the following passage: “That a peace based exclusively upon the political and economic arrangements of govern-ments would not be a peace which could secure the unani-mous, lasting and sincere support of the peoples of the world, and that the peace must therefore be founded, if it is not to fail, upon the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind.”Forbidding war in international law, and enforcing this law with United Nations sanctions, is not going to elimi-nate conflict. Peace can only be preserved when the hearts of the people of the world are joined regardless of status, worldview, and religion by the effort to achieve a common cause. World Heritage sites are a symbol of this basic spirit of UNESCO.Koso: There is the expectation among communities host-ing World Heritage sites that UNESCO inscription will lead to the revitalization of tourism. Meanwhile, many of these regions are facing ageing societies and depopulation, posing practical issues for the conservation of the sites.Kondo: The purpose of the World Heritage Convention is the conservation of the sites. There have been cases of sites where tourism development has led to desecration of the heritage and delisting. The chief objective of conservation is to achieve balanced development.Koso: I believe that we need to go in the direction of a single model for development appropriate to a tourist area where faith is alive, in line with the Sustainable Develop-ment Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations.Kondo: The SDGs approach is important in terms of the legacy of local historic, cultural, and natural values left to future generations. If governments, business, and cultural leaders can work together to discover the untapped power of the community to create a region that is spiritually rich, local people will regain their confidence and pride. We have to find ways to express this to the children.Koso: To make this happen, it is important that local people can talk about the meaning and stories behind the heritage sites in their own words. There is an initiative for junior high school students of Sakitsu to learn the history of the area they live in and to act as tour guides.Kondo: This type of initiative is vital. For example, Hi-raizumi City, home of the “Hiraizumi – Temples, Gardens and Archaeological Sites Representing the Buddhist Pure Land” World Heritage site inscribed in 2002, holds an English speech contest for high school students and has continued to carry out activities to communicate Hiraizu-mi’s value to the world. Koso: On the occasion of the ICOMOS submission, a Re-pressive Period Research Group was established to bring together Christian cultural scholars, of which I was made Chair. Our research uncovered something very interesting. A close reading of the “Silk Oratio” of the Goto Islands re-veals the names of places and people of Amakusa and So-tome in the prayers. This suggests that there were sea routes connecting the remote islands off the coast during the time of repression, and that these were used by hidden Christians for mutual interchange. Digging into the past like this has the potential to add to the wealth of stories connecting the 12 locations that make up the World Heritage Site.In fact, historic sites and artifacts related to the kirishi-tan are not limited to those inscribed in Nagasaki and Amakusa. They are to be found all over Japan. I hope that the designation of the Hidden Christian Sites by UNESCO will shed more light on the presence and role of the kirishi-tan in the history of Japan.World Heritage Sites Can Tap the Underlying Strength of the CommunitySpecial Talk