Shirakami-Sanchi is a general term for a vast mountainous area spanning 130,000 ha from the southwestern part of Aomori Prefecture to the northwestern part of Akita Prefecture. In December 1993, 16,971 hectares of virgin beech forest was registered as a World Heritage Site.
The area on the Aomori Prefecture side occupies about three-fourths of that, or 12,627ha.

The Shirakami-Sanchi is characterized by the distribution of one of the largest virgin beech forests in East Asia, largely unaffected by human activity.
In addition, in this natural beech forest, a wide variety of plants grow, including communities of beech oaks and sawa walnuts, and an extremely large number of animals, including Asian black bears, Japanese macaques, black woodpeckers, and golden eagles, live here despite the high latitude. The entire Shirakami-Sanchi presents a forest museum-like landscape.
In particular, World Heritage areas are the most pristine, and their value is evaluated as extremely important even from a global perspective.
Compared to other forests, beech forests have many plants that feed on animals, and in addition to being inhabited by more animals than other forests, these forests are also characterized by their high water source recharge function and ground surface erosion prevention function.