Shirakami-Sanchi

right|thumb|270px|Shirakami Mountains Relief Map (with UNESCO World Heritage Site) The are a UNESCO World Heritage Site wilderness area in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshū, Japan. This mountainous area includes the last virgin forest of Japanese beech which once covered most of northern Japan. The area straddles both Akita and Aomori Prefectures, with three-fourths of it in Aomori Prefecture. Of the entire area, a tract covering was included in the list of World Heritage Sites in 1993. Fauna found in the area includes Japanese black bear, the Japanese serow, Japanese macaque and 87 species of birds. The Shirakami-Sanchi was one of the first sites entered on the World Heritage List in Japan, along with Yakushima, Himeji Castle, and Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area in 1993. Permission is needed from Forest Management to enter the heart of the Shirakami-Sanchi.

==Location== Shirakami-Sanchi is a wilderness area covering one third of the Shirakami mountain range, straddling both Akita and Aomori Prefectures, with three-fourths of it in Aomori Prefecture. It has the largest remaining virgin beech forest in East Asia and the last vigin forest of Fagus crenata in Japan. It is a remnant of the cool-temperate forests that have covered mountainous slopes of northern Japan since 8,000-10,000 years ago. Beech forests are distributed across the northern hemisphere and are believed to have originated from circumpolar vegetation prior to the last glaciation. The location near the Sea of Japan is characterized by a distinct heavy-snow environment, enabling the area to retain a complete ecosystem of stable climax beech forest, which has disappeared from most of the world.