2009 Oct 16, Japan

Introduction

As an effort to promote the listing of the Tateyama-Kurobe Region as a World Heritage Site, which has been proposed by the Toyama Prefectural Government, the International Sabo Forum 2009 was held on October 16, 2009 in Toyama City for the purpose of making widely known that Toyama is the birthplace of modern sabo technology that has become globally widespread and the cultural value of Tateyama Sabo.

More than 350 visitors came to the forum from overseas as well as within Japan and gained a better understanding of the history of Tateyama Sabo, which has long played an important role in protecting Toyama Plain, and the international diffusion of sabo technology of Japan.

(1) Special lecture

Mr. Stuart Smith, who has long been presenting recommendations for the registration of World Heritage Site to the UNESCO, gave a lecture about the World Heritage Site registration activities he has worked on in different parts of the world and described specific procedures for the registration.

In the lecture, Mr. Smith said, “Tateyama Sabo meets the conditions of the registration as a World Heritage Site stipulated by the UNESCO,” and “Approaches should be made so that Tateyama Sabo will be listed as a World Heritage Site as a cultural heritage of the modern age.”

This high valuation given by a global authority on industrial heritage has helped us make great strides toward the registration as a World Heritage Site in the future.

(2) Lectures

As lecturers, experts from Japan and overseas spoke on the cultural value of Tateyama Sabo and the international contributions made with the Japanese sabo technology that started in Tateyama.

First, Mr. Kondo, Managing Director of the Sabo Technical Center, gave a lecture entitled “The Historical and Cultural Value of Tateyama Sabo” to present the changes in the sabo projects in Tateyama Caldera and their accomplishments and explained the circumstances of the significant development of sabo technology in Tateyama.

Mr. Mathema, former Nepalese Ambassador to Japan, spoke that Nepal had long been troubled by sediment-related disasters and measures against sediment-related disasters had been taken in cooperation with Japan and said that sabo technology of Japan was making contributions to the development of Nepal and welfare of the Nepalese people.

Mr. Legono of Universitas Gadjah Mada gave a description about the construction of sabo facilities and education and training of sabo engineers conducted in cooperation with the JICA.

Mr. Shintaro SUGIO spoke under the title of “Tateyama Sabo from the Viewpoint of Cultural Landscape” and mentioned the landscape made by the group of sabo facilities in Tateyama Caldera and expressed his opinion that “aiming at the registration as a World Heritage Site was reasonable for Tateyama as a cultural landscape, or a one-step-ahead idea of a landscape for disaster prevention.”

Lastly, Mr. Hidetomi OI, who served as a commentator, gave his advice that materials capable of communicating comments directly from people working on the site at the time of construction of Shiraiwa Sabo Dam should be made, which concluded the Forum.

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