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PART Recent Trends and Developments in Government Policies in Education, Science and Culture

Japan's cultural properties are indispensable for the Japanese people in gaining a proper understanding of the history and culture of their own country. The preservation and utilization of cultural properties is important not only for enriching the lives of citizens but it is also important as the foundation of the creation and development of the nation's culture.

In order to ensure the protection of cultural properties which are valuable national assets, the Ministry, under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, selects and designates cultural properties. There are National Treasures, Important Cultural Properties, Special Historic Sites, Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Natural Monuments, Important Intangible Cultural Properties, Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties, Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties, and Important Historic Structure Group Preservation Zones. The Ministry also takes various measures for preserving and utilizing these selected properties.

Further, the Ministry provides subsidies to the owners of designated cultural properties, as well as to local governments and other bodies, for their expenditures for the custody, repair, and disaster prevention of National Treasures, Important Cultural Properties or other designated properties. It also subsidizes various programs for making historic sites and other designated sites public properties and refurbishing and preserving them, for presenting and inheriting traditional performing arts, and for other relevant purposes. In addition, the Ministry makes efforts to increase the awareness of the public towards the significance of the protection of cultural properties.

It has become important in recent years to secure a proper coordination between the protection of cultural properties and development works which may threaten cultural properties, and to strive to utilize these properties so that people may visit and understand them.