The Korean government has expressed strong regret and protest over the nomination by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs on Dec. 28, 2021, of the mines on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture as a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage. Seoul has urged Tokyo to first faithfully implement the follow-up measures it promised in 2015 to inform the full history behind its wartime atrocities and honor the victims in return for listing with UNESCO facilities of its Meiji Industrial Revolution, including Hashima (Battleship) Island.

Despite the pledges, Japan instead opened the Industrial Heritage Information Centre in Tokyo, not Hashima, and distorted history by hiding the history of discrimination against Koreans, forced work and human rights violations on the island.

In July 2021, the 21 countries on UNESCO's World Heritage Committee adopted a resolution at its 44th session expressing "strong regrets" over Japan's management of its world heritage.