Sacred Places, Pilgrimage, and Tourism - Geography of Religion in Japan: Religious Space, Landscape, and Behavior - page 156

Fig. 4.15 Mass tourism toward Oura Cathedral

should not be entrusted to one special organization. There are numerous actors
involved, including the people associated with the churches and Christian believers,
and major external actors such as local government, Nagasaki Prefecture individual
municipalities, several economic organizations, companies, the mass media, and
even tourists. Figure 4.18 sets out the relationships of the main actors in the World
Heritage registration movement involving the Nagasaki Church Group based on the
framework made by Endo ( 2005 ). Endo provides the three actors involved; namely
tourists (consumers), residents, and producers. Producers play a considerable role
as a trendsetter in the registration of World Heritage sites. My previous studies dis-
cussed the actual situation of tourism in the municipalities involved and the contriv-
ances presented by the public administrations of Nagasaki and Hirado City (Matsui
2006 ), Kamigoto Island (Matsui and Kojima 2007 ). Previous studies also examined
the signifi cance of the role of some local-religious cultures as a World Heritage
movement (Matsui 2007 ), and analyzed representation of guests' discourse (Matsui
2008a ). However, in this paper, as well as in a previous paper (Matsui 2007 ), I have
focused on the philosophy and activities of the Association for Declaring the
Nagasaki Church Group a World Heritage (called the World Heritage Association
below), which was the leader in the World Heritage site registration movement. This
Association was a voluntary association acting as a producer (see Fig. 4.18 ). In
December 2006, it was not a non-profi t organization, but may become one in future.