The ban on female visitors "has nothing to do with discrimination against women", an official told AFP.
Limited men are allowed on the island and they must also strip off and take a purifying dip in the ocean before they are allowed to set foot on the sacred ground of the shrine.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization decided at a meeting in Krakow, southern Poland, to list the island of Okinoshima and the nearby reefs plus four other sites in Fukuoka Prefecture that a UNESCO preliminary review panel had recommended Japan should drop.
They join a list of more than a thousand World Heritage Sites, selected based on their reflection of human ingenuity; testimony to culture, history or science; or manifestation of nature's beauty or power, among other criteria.
'Fake tickets' being sold for Ed Sheeran tour
"We can not guarantee that tickets listed on these sites or on sale from secondary sellers are valid or actually exist". People who bought tickets must actually go, well, that's the plan by Ed and his team to try and combat ticket touts.
Okinoshima, located midway between the south-western main island of Kyushu and the Korean peninsula, was once the site of rituals to pray for maritime safety and a centre for relations with China and Korea that stretch back as far as the fourth century, reports the Guardian. Approximately 80,000 items discovered on the island were declared national treasures.
To be awarded World Heritage status a site must be of outstanding universal value and must meet one of the ten selection criteria. When the men leave, they can not take any souvenir or disclose details of their visit, as BBC reported. How could the "men-only" island be on the UNESCO World Heritage List?
"Shinto treats blood as an impurity". Men are allowed to visit once a year, on May 27, for a festival held to "comfort the spirits" of Japanese and Russian servicemen who died in battle in the Sea of Japan in 1905. Other accounts said women were not allowed to participate in maritime travel because it was considered unsafe and the men wanted to ensure the safety of child-bearers. The entire island is considered sacred as part of the Munakata Taisha shrine on the mainland.
"We wouldn't open Okinoshima to the public even if it is inscribed on the UNESCO cultural heritage list, because people shouldn't visit out of curiosity, Takayuki Ashizu, the chief priest at Munakata Taisha, said to the Japan Times in 2016".
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