Establishment of ACCU Nara

ACCU Nara was established in August 1999 in cooperation with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan, and the Nara Prefecture and City Governments.
The establishment was undertaken following discussions on international cooperation in the area by the Survey Researcher Council for Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation for World Heritage Protection, which was established as a private advisory organization for the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs in 1997. The council proposed the development of domestic bases to conduct and enhance cooperation for the protection of cultural properties in the Asia-Pacific region. In response to this proposal, ACCU was established in Nara, an area blessed with a wealth of cultural heritage.


Human Resource Development at ACCU Nara

In February and March 2000, the Consultative Meeting on Regional Cooperation in Cultural Heritage Protection in Asia and the Pacific and the Experts Meeting on Training Programmes for Cultural Heritage Protection in Asia and the Pacific were convened to organize the roles of ACCU Nara and the specific contents of the project. As a result, we decided to conduct three projects targeting 44 countries in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan with the following goals:
(1) To collect and provide information on the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage;
(2) To develop human resources engaged in the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage and provide opportunities for the exchange
of information; and
(3) To organize international meetings on the protection of cultural heritage.
The most important among these three is the development of human resources. We provide group training including one person from each country, individual training targeting 2 to 3 persons from each country, and workshops held in subject countries with lecturers dispatched from Japan.

Subject Countries and Participants

The core of human resource development project is group training jointly conducted by the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan, and National Institutes for Cultural Heritage. We invite personnel in charge of cultural heritage protection from countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have adhered to the World Heritage Convention, and provide training on the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage. We seek participants through UNESCO committees in the relevant countries or the Japan Consortium for International Cooperation in Cultural Heritage (JCIC-Heritage). Participants are selected through discussion referring to the information held by ACCU Nara and ICCROM. In principle, one individual from each country is allowed to participate in the training, and the duration of training is approximately one month.
Training is provided on the themes of “Research, Analysis and Preservation of Archaeological Sites and Remains” and “Preservation and Restoration of Wooden Structures,” with each being provided in turn once every two years. The training started in 2000, and 224 participants from 35 countries have undergone training (as of October 2014).


Training Programmes

The training curriculum consists of lectures, practice, on-site presentations, and discussions, which begin with a lecture on international movements on cultural heritage protection by an ICCROM lecturer, and reports and discussions on cultural heritage protection status in each country by participants. Following this, participants engage in practical exercises to master the most recent knowledge and skills utilizing the characteristics of remains and historical structures in Japan, attend lectures on related sciences, and hear on-site lectures. The main part of this training is practice, during which the participants themselves observe and record the characteristics of cultural properties. At the final session of the training, ICCROM lecturers teach the principles of cultural heritage protection and future issues, and participants engage in discussion. After the training, we collect participant evaluations for the training to use for the next session.

Establishment of Networks

Because participants gather from different countries in the Asia-Pacific region, this group training is an opportunity to exchange information and establish networks. In addition to this group training, we also publish “International Correspondent” twice each year. This includes periodical reports on the protection of cultural properties and heritage in each country by participants in past training, who serve as on-site correspondents.


Human Resource Development at ACCU Nara

In addition to the above-mentioned group training, ACCU Nara carries out individual training and workshops under the human resource development projects on cultural heritage protection. A one-month individual training is provided for 2 to 3 people invited from one country, and it focuses on urgent issues in the relevant country. Workshops are also provided by lecturers dispatched to countries. These workshops are giving in the language of the participants and make use of cultural properties in the relevant country. This makes it possible to accept many participants at one time.
As we have introduced here, each human resource development project carried out by ACCU Nara has certain characteristics. By combining these training projects, we strive to increase the effectiveness of the human resource development project.