The TravelAge West editorial offices in Los Angeles were recently honored by the visit of a high-level delegation in town from Japan for an event hosted by the Visit Japan Campaign (Yokoso Japan) and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center.
The event, called the World Heritage Wooden Structure Tourism Forum, was held at the Aratani/Japan American Theatre. It’s goal was to honor “the elegance and magnificence of Japan’s wooden World Heritage structures.” The event called attention to the fact that while there are countless World Heritage structures around the world, relatively few are made of wood and some of Japan’s structures date back 1,400 years.
The delegation included VIPs such as Akira Fujiwara, chairman of the Japanese World Heritage Council and mayor of Nara city; Yuichiro Honda, of UNWTO/APTEC; and Yuhei Shimazaki, director general of the Kinki District Transport Bureau among others. Also present was Koichiro Kakee, executive director of the JNTO in Los Angeles.
