Overview
- The Cultural Affairs Council recommended on June 19, 2026 that the Kanayama Byakko'i habitat in Shirakawa, Fukushima be designated a Natural Monument and forwarded that advice to the education minister for formal promulgation.
- The council also proposed designating the 84-meter Shirainotaki waterfall in Tōon, Ehime as a Place of Scenic Beauty and naming two archaeological sites in Okayama and Kagoshima as Historic Sites.
- Officials asked that the Natural Monument status for Kume's Five-branch Pine in Kumejima, Okinawa be removed after it was diagnosed dead in August 2025, a procedural delisting step when a protected natural object no longer exists.
- Four sites including the Old Asada Family Garden in Kanazawa were recommended for registration as Registered Monuments, and if the minister follows the council's advice the official totals will rise to 3,401 designated Historic Sites/Places of Scenic Beauty/Natural Monuments and 153 registered monuments.
- Under Japan's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, ministerial promulgation is the legal step that triggers conservation measures and management support, so the council's recommendations could prompt protection actions, local conservation funding, and greater public recognition for the named places once formalized.