Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that Japan will recommend a former gold mine on Sado Island for a UNESCO World Heritage list, despite protests from South Korea that the site is inappropriate because of its wartime abuse of Korean laborers — a sensitive issue that still strains ties between the neighbors.
Kishida's decision to recommend the 400-year-old site in northern Japan this year apparently reverses his earlier, more cautious stance after a strong push by powerful ultra-rightwing revisionists in his governing party.
