List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments

To protect Japan's cultural heritage, the country's government selects through the Agency for Cultural Affairs important items and designates them as Cultural Properties under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. Designated items are classified in a number of categories, one of which is Monuments (記念物, kinenbutsu). This category includes historic locations such as shell mounds, ancient tombs, sites of palaces, sites of forts or castles, monumental dwelling houses and other sites of high historical or scientific value; gardens, bridges, gorges, mountains, and other places of great scenic beauty; and natural features such as animals, plants, and geological or mineral formations of high scientific value.

The government further designates "significant" monuments classifying them in three categories: Historic Sites (史跡, shiseki), Places of Scenic Beauty (名勝, meishō), and Natural Monuments (天然記念物, tennen kinenbutsu). Items of particularly high significance receive higher classifications: Special Historic Sites (特別史跡, tokubetsu shiseki), Special Places of Scenic Beauty (特別名勝, tokubetsu meishō), and Special Natural Monuments (特別天然記念物, tokubetsu tennen kinenbutsu) respectively. As of June 20, 2025 there are 1,041 Natural Monuments, 1917 Historic Sites and 432 Places of Scenic Beauty. Out of these, there are 75 Special Natural Monuments, 36 Special Places of Scenic Beauty and 65 Special Historic Sites.

Since a single item can fall under more than one of these categories, the total number of sites is less than the sum of designations.

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