Vietnam and Japan share experience in promoting heritage values

Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong delivers the keynote remarks at the thematic session

On September 6th, in Hue City, as part of Vietnam - Japan Local Cooperation Forum 2026, delegates shared experiences in promoting heritage, developing cultural tourism, and protecting and promoting heritage values in connection with local communities. They also discussed the application of VR/AR, 3D mapping and digital transformation in heritage restoration and conservation.

In his keynote remarks, the leader of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism emphasized that conserving and promoting cultural heritage values is not only about preserving cultural identity, but also about unlocking endogenous resources for sustainable development, expanding space for dialogue, and strengthening understanding and ties between countries.

Conservation through law and community resources

One of the experiences shared at the forum was the conservation of Asuka Village in Nara Prefecture, Japan.

Since the 1960s, the historic landscape of Asuka had been at risk of being transformed under pressure from urbanization spreading from the Osaka area. Against this backdrop, Mr. Mitsui Keizo, a traditional medicine practitioner who moved from Osaka to live in Asuka, campaigned to protect the area's historic and cultural landscape.

Mr. Mitsui had treated Mr. Matsushita Konosuke, founder of Panasonic. Through Mr. Matsushita, a proposal highlighting the importance of preserving the Asuka landscape was conveyed to Prime Minister Sato Eisaku. These efforts contributed to Japan's enactment of the Asuka Preservation Law in 1980.

According to Mr. Yamashita Makoto, Governor of Nara Prefecture, the law was built on two pillars: controlling development activities and providing financial support for costs arising from conservation regulations.

In some areas of Asuka, all development activities are prohibited, with no new buildings or car parks allowed. Across the area, the construction, expansion or renovation of buildings must comply with regulations on materials. Roofs must use traditional materials such as tiles, thatch, hinoki wood and copper, while exterior walls must also use appropriate materials.

As a result, the landscape of Asuka has remained largely unchanged from the 1960s to 2020.

However, the full cost of conservation has not been placed on local residents. The prefecture and village established a fund of around JPY 3 billion, using returns from the fund to support local activities. The Japanese Government and Nara Prefecture also provide around JPY 200 million a year to help residents repair roofs and exterior walls and renovate traditional houses.

This approach shows that sustainable conservation must be linked to community life. Local residents should not simply be required to comply with conservation regulations; they also need the conditions and resources to live alongside their heritage.

These long-term efforts have also created additional value for tourism. In 2025, Nara was recognized as one of the Best Tourism Villages. The Asuka-Fujiwara Heritage also gained World Heritage status around 20 years after being added to the Tentative List in 2007.

The thematic discussion showed that heritage is increasingly being viewed as a resource for development when connected with communities, technology, tourism and cultural industries

From conservation to digitalization and cultural Industries

The experience of Nara was followed by the story of Bac Ninh, which illustrates a different approach: rather than leaving heritage ‘standing still in the past’, the province is gradually developing value chains based on heritage.

Mr. Ninh Mai Son, Permanent Vice Chairman of Bac Ninh Provincial People's Committee, emphasized: “Conservation does not mean leaving heritage standing still in the past. Development does not mean simply commercializing heritage”.

Accordingly, Bac Ninh is working to protect authenticity, pass on heritage values, create new ways of accessing heritage, and develop responsible cultural products so that local communities can benefit and heritage can gain additional resources for its continued preservation and promotion.

Meanwhile, Hue is pursuing a more foundational approach: using digitalization for conservation and leveraging data to create new value.

According to Mr. Tran Huu Thuy Giang, Vice Chairman of Hue City People's Committee, Hue Monuments Conservation Center has standardized and digitized more than 1,400 heritage records; created three-dimensional digital models of 207 artefacts; equipped 108 artefacts with NFC chips for identification and management; taken initial steps to develop building information modelling data for Thai Hoa Palace; and built a database to manage around 7,830 trees and put 96 smart interactive points into operation.

In particular, Hue is looking to move from ‘heritage digitalization’ to a ‘digital heritage economy’. Under this approach, digital data, 3D models, collections of decorative motifs, verified historical content and licensed derivative products could serve as inputs for education, creative design, cultural industries, tourism and digital services. However, this process requires simultaneous solutions to issues relating to data exploitation rights, identification, valuation, licensing, intellectual property, revenue reconciliation and benefit sharing.

Vice Chairman Tran Huu Thuy Giang (center) delivers a paper at the thematic session

Expanding cooperation to create more value from heritage

A common point emphasized by delegates was that technology can only reach its full potential when placed within a cooperative ecosystem in which authorities, communities, universities, businesses, artisans and creative practitioners all take part.

A JICA representative said the organization’s approach to cooperation with Vietnam focuses on three areas: co-creation, innovation, and bringing solutions developed through cooperation back to serve the two countries while also sharing them with the world. In this process, connecting the technology and experience of Japanese localities with Vietnamese people and localities is creating a range of practical cooperation models.

The cooperation between Toho Village in Fukuoka Prefecture and Phu Lang Village in Bac Ninh is one example. Both have a long tradition of pottery production and are seeking to shift from mass production towards higher-value products that use fewer resources.

Through cooperation, Japanese artisans have transferred techniques to develop small but higher-value ceramic products, thereby linking environmental protection, the inheritance of traditional culture, pottery development, tourism and local exchanges.

In Hue, cooperation with Japan has also expanded into the environmental sector. With JICA support, Fukuoka Prefecture is working with Hue to develop an operation and maintenance manual for a waste treatment facility based on the ‘Fukuoka Method’. Kyoto city is also preparing a JICA project related to waste reduction and sorting.

In the field of water environment, cooperation projects have contributed to improving drainage and wastewater treatment systems in Hue. These activities show that heritage conservation today cannot be separated from the environment, tourism, livelihoods and the quality of life of local communities.