A government panel on Monday selected Christian sites in the southwest, including a church in the city of Nagasaki known as Japan's oldest, as a collective candidate for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status in 2018.

It is the second time the panel has picked the sites in Nagasaki and Kumamoto prefectures, including Nagasaki's Oura Catholic Church, a designated national treasure. The area was the focus of Japan's persecution of Christians when the religion was banned for most of the Edo Period (1603-1868), and also of its revival thereafter.

The sites in Kyushu were recommended by Japan in January last year in the hope of getting them World Heritage status this summer.