News that Iwate Prefecture's historic Hiraizumi area and the Ogasawara Islands would be added to UNESCO's World Heritage List last June lifted the spirits of residents in the Tohoku region after the March 11 quake-tsunami trauma.

Although Hiraizumi, like other towns in the area, saw tourism plunge after the catastrophe, visitors have been flooding the area ever since, tripling from 98,067 in May to 292,640 in August, town authorities say.

Mount Fuji and Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, are the next two sites Japan will submit for World Heritage recognition in 2013.