Tomioka Silk Mill: Japan’s next World Heritage Site? (Video)

While silk is an undeniable part of Japan’s modern economic and industrial history, and this mill has great significance for Japan, what significance does it have to the WORLD to warrant its status as a World Heritage monument? The more World Heritage sites there are the more the value of the status will be diminished, and soon every major tourist site will be ‘World Heritage’. The cynic in me (which is pretty much all of me) wonders if it isn’t all about tourism promotion and funding rather than cultural assets and global human heritage….

UNESCO World Heritage Selection Criteria:
# I. “to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius”;
# II. “to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design”;
# III. “to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared”;
# IV. “to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history”;
# V. “to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change”;
# VI. “to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria)”

Tomioka reckons it’s covered in II and IV. Is it truly outstanding (IV) in a global sense, and is Japan’s start of industry truly a significant stage in human history, or just Japanese (or East Asian even) history? And II could apply pretty much to anything.