Folk cultural properties reflect transitions in the daily lives of the Japanese people. They include tangible and intangible cultural properties that the people of Japan have created and passed down in the course of daily life, such as: manners and customs; folk performing arts and folk techniques concerning food, clothing, housing, occupation, religious faith, annual events, and other matters; and clothing, tools and instruments, dwellings, and other objects used in connection with the above.
The national government designates especially significant Folk Cultural Properties and strives to preserve them. For Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties, the national government subsidizes projects concerning their restoration or administration projects to install facilities for storage and disaster prevention. The national government also subsidizes local governments for their efforts to preserve and pass down Intangible Cultural Properties and to generally utilize Folk Cultural Properties. The national government selects undesignated intangible folk cultural properties that need to be documented, and produces documentary records for them as necessary, or subsidizes research or documentation programs conducted by local governments.

Promotion of Documenting Endangered Intangible Folk Cultural Properties

The Agency selects and protects intangible folk cultural properties other than Important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties that particularly require documentation or other attention as “Intangible Folk Cultural Properties that need measures such as making records.” Among the selected intangible folk cultural properties, the ones with a higher risk of transfiguration or decay are systematically recorded in videos or reports, to ensure documentation.

* Click on the name to jump to the YouTube video channel of the MEXT.

* Region indicates the region at the time of selection.