Follow the paths to Japan's treasures.
27 UNESCO World Heritage properties, each with the access details, timing, and context to plan an actual visit — not just admire from afar.
Okinawa and Amami are drawn in a separate panel at the same scale, 2–3 hours by air from Tokyo. Ogasawara lies about 1,000 km out in the Pacific, 24 hours by ferry.
- Amami-Okinawa Islands (Amami Oshima / Yanbaru / Iriomote)
- Himeji Castle
- Hiraizumi
- Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine
- Jomon Sites of Northern Japan (Sannai Maruyama)
- Kumano Kodo & Koyasan (Kii Mountains)
- Mt. Fuji (Fujisan)
- National Museum of Western Art (Le Corbusier)
- Nikko (Toshogu Shrine)
- Ogasawara Islands (Bonin Islands)
- Okinoshima & Munakata Taisha
- Ryukyu Gusuku Sites (Shuri Castle, Okinawa)
- Sado Gold Mines
- Shirakami-Sanchi
- Shirakawa-go & Gokayama
- Shiretoko Peninsula
- Tomioka Silk Mill
- Yakushima
Featured properties
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Permits, caps and registered guides: booking Iriomote's restricted trails before you leave home
Five of Iriomote's best routes, Pinaisara Falls included, have been closed to unapproved entry since 1 March 2025, with caps as low as 30 people a day and a Japanese-only booking portal. Here is exactly how the approval works, what it costs, and how far ahead to start.
The Star Map That Opens a Few Weeks a Year
Everything on permanent display in Asuka is a replica: the painted chambers that made these tombs famous are dismantled or sealed. The real Kitora murals, including East Asia's oldest scientific star chart, surface only in short application-only viewings, about four a year and three in 2026.
Stone circles and a solstice line: driving the Jomon sites beyond Aomori
The argument that persuaded UNESCO lives mostly outside Aomori City, in stone circles and burial earthworks that close for winter and sit a taxi ride from the nearest station. A five-site route from Iwate to New Chitose, timed to the summer solstice.