List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments


To protect Japan's cultural heritage, the country's government selects through the Agency for Cultural Affairs important items and designates them as Cultural Properties under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. Designated items are classified in a number of categories, one of which is Monuments. This category includes historic locations such as shell mounds, ancient tombs, sites of palaces, sites of forts or castles, monumental dwelling houses and other sites of high historical or scientific value; gardens, bridges, gorges, mountains, and other places of great scenic beauty; and natural features such as animals, plants, and geological or mineral formations of high scientific value.
The government further designates "significant" monuments classifying them in three categories: Historic Sites, Places of Scenic Beauty, and Natural Monuments. Items of particularly high significance receive higher classifications: Special Historic Sites, Special Places of Scenic Beauty, and Special Natural Monuments respectively. As of June 19, 2020 there are 1,031 Natural Monuments, 1847 Historic Sites, 422 Places of Scenic Beauty, 75 Special Natural Monuments, 36 Special Places of Scenic Beauty and 63 Special Historic Sites.
Since a single item can fall under more than one of these categories, the total number of sites is less than the sum of designations.

Criteria

The Agency for Cultural Affairs designates monuments based on a number of criteria. A monument can be designated based on more than one of these criteria:

Places of Scenic Beauty and Special Places of Scenic Beauty

  1. Parks and gardens
  2. Bridges and embankments
  3. Flowering trees, flowering grass, autumn colors, green trees and other places of dense growth
  4. Places inhabited by birds and wild animals, fish/insects and others
  5. Rocks, caves
  6. Ravines, gorges, waterfalls, mountain streams, abysses
  7. Lakes, marshes, wetlands, floating islands, springs
  8. Sand dunes, spits, seasides, islands
  9. Volcanoes, onsen
  10. Mountains, hills, plateaus, plains, rivers
  11. Viewpoints

    Historic Sites and Special Historic Sites

  12. Shell mounds, settlement ruins, kofun, other historic ruins of this type
  13. Ruins of fortified towns, castles, government administration offices, old battlefields and other historic ruins related to politics or government
  14. Remains of shrines and temples, former compound grounds and other historic ruins related to religion
  15. Schools, research institutions, cultural facilities and other historic ruins related to education, learning or culture
  16. Medical care and welfare facilities, life related institution, other society and life related historic ruins
  17. Transport and communication facilities, forest conservation and flood control facilities, manufacture facilities and other historic sites related to finance or manufacture activities
  18. Graves and stone monuments with inscriptions
  19. Former residences, gardens, ponds and other areas of particular historical significance
  20. Ruins related to foreign countries or foreigners

    Natural Monuments and Special Natural Monuments

  21. Animals
  22. # Well-known animals peculiar to Japan and their habitat
  23. # Animals which are not peculiar to Japan, but need to be preserved as well-known characteristic Japanese animals, and their habitat
  24. # Animals or animal groups peculiar to Japan within their natural environment
  25. # Domestic animals peculiar to Japan
  26. # Well-known imported animals presently in a wild state, with the exception of domestic animals; their habitat
  27. # Particularly valuable animal specimen
  28. Plants, vegetation
  29. # Old trees of historic interest, gigantic trees, old trees, deformed trees, cultivated pulpwood, roadside trees, shrine forests
  30. # Representative primeval forests, rare forest flora
  31. # Representative alpine plants, special clusters of plants on rock ground
  32. # Representative clusters of waste land plants
  33. # Representative examples of coastal and sand ground vegetation
  34. # Representative examples of areas of peat forming plants
  35. # Clusters of plants growing in caves or grottoes
  36. # Rare water plants in garden ponds, onsen, lakes, marshes, streams, sea, etc.; algae, moss, microbes, etc.
  37. # Remarkable occurrence of epiphytic plants on rocks, trees or shrubs
  38. # Remarkable plant growth on marginal land
  39. # Remarkable growth in the wild of crop plants
  40. # Wild habitat of rare or near extinct plants
  41. Geological and mineralogical features
  42. # Rocks, mineral and fossil producing sites
  43. # Conformable and unconformable strata
  44. # Fold and thrust strata
  45. # Geological features caused by the work of living creatures
  46. # Phenomena related to earthquake dislocation and landmass motion
  47. # Caves, grottoes
  48. # Examples of rock organization
  49. # Onsen and their sediments
  50. # Erosion and weathering related phenomena
  51. # Fumaroles and other items related to volcanic activity
  52. # Ice and frost related phenomena
  53. # Particularly precious rock, mineral and fossil specimen
  54. Representative territories rich in natural monuments to be protected

    Usage

The table's columns are sortable pressing the arrows symbols. The following gives an overview of what is included in the table and how the sorting works.