Tokyo: The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO has included Mount Fuji on the UN agency`s prestigious World Heritage list.
The 3,776-meter volcano straddling Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures was approved by the 21-member panel of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization during its 37th session in Cambodia`s capital, the Japan Times reported.
Japan`s highest and most celebrated peak was designated a "cultural" rather than "natural" site and registered under the title "Mt. Fuji: Object of Worship, Wellspring of Art."
It is Japan`s 17th site to make the list and the first since the historic Hiraizumi area in Iwate Prefecture and the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific won approval in 2011.
Japan asked UNESCO to register Mount Fuji in January 2012 because it has been viewed as a religious site, depicted in ukiyo-e paintings and helped nurture Japan`s unique culture.
ANI
