Participation in the 2025 World Forum for Intangible Cultural Heritage
ISHIMURA Tomo (author) of our institute participated in the 2025 World Forum for Intangible Cultural Heritage, an international forum held in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, on September 17th and 18th. This international forum is held annually by the National Heritage Service of the Republic of Korea and the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (ICHCAP). The forum was held at Jingwansa, a Buddhist temple located north of downtown Seoul. The opening ceremony featured a demonstration of a Buddhist ritual called “Suryukjae,” and traditional vegetarian cuisine was served for lunch. After the forum on the final day, participants also had the opportunity to try meditation.
This year’s theme was “Exploring Economic Activities of Intangible Cultural Heritage,” and discussions focused on the economic aspects of intangible cultural heritage. The forum consisted of a keynote speech by Mr. Ahmed Eiweida, followed by Session 1, themed “Exploring the Economic Value of ICH,” Session 2, “Community-Based Economic Activities and Sustainable Development,” Session 3, “Ethical Commercialization of ICH,” and a special session, “Local Perspectives: Economic Practices of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Korea.” Experts from around the world (Singapore, Timor-Leste, Hong Kong, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Botswana, the Philippines, Japan, and the Republic of Korea) participated as presenters and/or moderators.
The author gave a presentation in Session 3 titled “Protecting while promoting: Two designation systems for traditional crafts in Japan.” In Japan, there are two designation systems for safeguarding craft techniques: the Important Intangible Cultural Properties designation system under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s “Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties,” and the designation system of Traditional Crafts under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s “Act on the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries.” The former primarily aims to protect craft techniques, while the latter primarily aims to promote them. While the two systems may appear contradictory by their names, they rather complement each other and contribute to the survival of craft techniques.
In the discussion part of in Session 3, issues surrounding intangible cultural heritage and intellectual property rights were also discussed. Concerns were expressed, particularly about intangible cultural heritage falling out of the hands of communities and into a state of over-commercialization and decontextualization. Regarding traditional crafts in Japan, the author spoke about the risk of inexpensive counterfeits being imported from abroad. The author also mentioned a case in which a foreign celebrity had previously attempted to use the name “Kimono” for a brand she designed, which sparked strong criticism from Japan. The relationship between intangible cultural heritage and artificial intelligence (AI) was also mentioned during the discussion, an issue that the author felt has not yet been sufficiently discussed in Japan overall.
The slogan “utilizing cultural properties” has been around for a long time in Japan, but participating in this forum reaffirmed that balancing preservation and utilization remains an important issue. It also gave me an opportunity to think about the possibility of further increasing the value of cultural properties/cultural heritage by having communities take an active role in preserving and utilizing them.