Seto Inland Sea Regional has a very beautiful landscape. We can see the deep blue sea in the bright blue sky and vivid fresh green trees. Because of its beauty, it became the first national park in Japan. There are old houses among modern buildings and new houses. People living in the area are living together with urban style and rural style. There are many old temples and shrines, and people cherish traditional culture trough festivals and rituals. Recently, as a result of these, many tourists have come from all over Japan and from all over the world.

The International Contemporary Art Festival is held every 3 years, in the Seto Inland Sea Region, mainly island. By the result, a lot of visitors from all over the world have become to enjoy seeing the mixture of beautiful landscape, art and islanders' life.

Also, in the Shikoku district including the Seto Inland Sea Region has pilgrimage to visit 88 temples from over 1,200 years ago. In today, a large number of people from all over the world are going around the temples. It is called Shikoku Henro.

Seto Inland Sea Regional Research Center is researching the culture of the region, especially, Culture remaining on the island. The islands are isolated from land and other islands, and each island has developed a unique culture, for example, funerals, births, festivals, and so on. These are closely related to the old-fashioned islander life.

the islanders' lives. Therefore, the local governments are calling for young people to live to the island and develop new industries. For example, measures to increase the number of island tourism that is on the increase are desired. The center conducts investigation and research on current situation surveys and countermeasures together with local people.

The center focused on the history of Shikoku Henro. By collecting old documents and interpreting and analyzing it, the center has studied how the pilgrimage was done and developed, how it affected people's lives and so on. As our local government wishes to register the Shikoku Henro for as a World Heritage, the center hopes that these will become useful.