JSPS Quarterly No. 32, Summer 2010

JSPS Quarterly No. 32, Summer 2010 (532 KB)


Sixth Japan-Germany Colloquium “World Heritage for Tomorrow”

On 18-19 February, the sixth Japan-Germany Colloquium was held, this time on the topic “World Heritage for Tomorrow.” It was venued at Brandenburg University of Technology, the only university in Germany to offer a major in World Heritage Studies. The meeting brought together 25 young researchers mainly from Germany and Japan, but with a few coming from England, Ireland and Poland. They hailed from a wide range of research specializations, including the architectural history, maintenance and restoration, social sciences, design, and environmental engineering.

Themed “What,” the first day’s session focused on factors for determining what are world-heritage sites and what the future value of such sites will be. The second day’s session was titled “How.” It advanced a case-study-based discussion on cultural property restoration activities along with methods and techniques employed in them. Bridging the two sessions was a more general discussion, entitled “For Whom.” It engaged the participants in a dialogue that included philosophical and ethical points of view.

As the value-determination and registration of world-heritage properties is heavily influenced by political factors, that the colloquium advanced an active discussion on what scientists can do to enrich this process may have been its most valuable outcome. The colloquium was also successful in accelerating the pace of German-Japanese research cooperation in the world-heritage domain.

JSPS Bonn Office