The government has decided to seek World Heritage status in 2015 for old industrial facilities in eight prefectures, officials said Saturday.
Christian-related sites in Kyushu meanwhile will be recommended for designation in subsequent years, the officials said.
Countries are allowed to recommend only one World Heritage candidate each year to UNESCO.
The facilities, representative of Japan's industrial revolution in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are in Iwate, Shizuoka, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures.
They include the Yahata steelworks in Fukuoka and the Nagasaki dockyard, both of which are still in operation.