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Japan has been known as a "haven for stolen artifacts", it wasn't until 1999 when Japanese Ambassador Koichiro Matsuura was appointed director-general of UNESCO that Japan thought about signing the UNESCO convention agreement to return stolen artifacts.
Cultural assets from China, porcelain from Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines can be found in Japan. In a summit meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea asked Japan to return stolen artifacts taken between 1910 and 1945. Japan has rejected this request. There is an estimated 200,000 Korean artifacts alone in Japan which cannot be designated as UNESCO world treasures until they are returned or proper protocol can be measured. The cultural bureau at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, said: ``I do not know much about North Korea, but in general, if a former colony requests the return of certain cultural assets, the former suzerain may be bound to comply. It is a moral obligation that is in accordance with the spirit of the UNESCO convention." In 1965, a treaty was signed between South Korea and Japan but did not cover this issue. But Japan did return 1321 stolen articles to South Korea at that time. Many Korean historians still need to travel to Japan to study ancient Korean documents.
Vast majority of these issues are still unresolved with multiple countries like China, South Korea, North Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.