TOKYO (AFP) – Japan's Iwate prefecture, whose coastline was hard hit by the March 11 tsunami, on Saturday won endorsement for its historic Hiraizumi area to be listed as a World Heritage site, the government said.

Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs announced that an International Council on Monuments and Sites panel recommended that the Buddhist architecture, gardens and archaeological sites in Hiraizumi be listed.

UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will make a formal decision in Paris next month.

If realised, the registration of Hiraizumi, the first in the country's northeastern Tohoku region, would deliver a boost for the disaster-hit region, as it will likely lead to an increase in tourist numbers.

"It is a very good news," said Iwate governor Takuya Tasso.

"I was hoping it (the registration) would become a symbol of the Tohoku region's reconstruction from the disaster. The international rating would be an encouragement for us."