PEOPLE
Vice-Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture
You say that change is necessary to remain competitive. What do you mean by that?
A port has to be constantly renovated and improved in line with economic and social changes and users’ needs if it is to remain viable. Suppose, for example, you make partial improvements so that a port that normally can only accommodate ships of up to 5,000 tons can immediately take in a 10,000-ton vessel. If the port is managed under the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties, however, every little change would have to be deliberated by a cultural property council. That could take one, even two, years. By then, of course, the customer will have gone elsewhere.
Under the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties, changes of any kind, even replacing a single screw, have to be deliberated.
So, as you can see, Miike Port would lose its viability as an economic infrastructure facility if it had to be operated under the terms of the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties. Naturally, the owner is not going to appreciate having the port registered as a World Heritage site. If we apply the provisions of the Port and Harbor Act, however, it is possible to both conserve the heritage sections of port and allow it to remain in operation at the same time, and the owner will be more amendable to inscription as a world Heritage site. That’s why I proposed this approach to Ms. Koko Kato.
Apparently, Miike Port operates under a unique system of management and ownership.
That’s right. The port is originally a private corporate facility. In order to open it up for public use, an arrangement was made under the provisions of the Port and Harbor Act to assign management of the facility to Fukuoka Prefecture and to have the port designated as major national port so that the national and Fukuoka prefectural governments could expand the facility. As a result, the port has a mixture of facilities (including piers and wharves) independently owned and managed by the national and prefectural governments as well as the original corporate owner. Conservation management, therefore, requires that cooperation and approval of the Fukuoka prefectural government and the private corporate owner.
Where did you go from there?
We worked with Ms. Kato to make the idea a reality by drafting a master plan. What portions of the Port and Harbor Act should be applied? How should the port and harbor plan be used and what should be written into it? Our objective was to draft a plan that would make it possible to conserve the port while allowing it to remain fully operative.
This was the first attempt to do this for a Japanese port. At first, there were only three of us that thought applying the Port and Harbor Act was possible: Ms. Koko Kato, an international expert named Dr. Michael Pearson, and myself. It was imperative that we be able to show that the Port and Harbor Act could be applied, or no one would support us.
That’s why we decided to draft a conservation and management plan that could be used as an example for conserving Miike Port as a World Heritage site. We were fortunate to have the encouragement and advice of Sir Neil Cossons and Dr. Michael Pearson.
With a specific plan to present to people, we were gradually able increase the number of supporters. Remember, though, this was still only a theory of how Miike Port might be managed as a World Heritage site.
Former Mayor of Omuta City
Archaeologist and Heritage Conservation Specialist
A fellow of the Japan Federation of Engineering Societies
Team Member of the Industrial Project Team Office for the Promotion of World Heritage Listing under Cabinet Secretariat
Governor of Kagoshima Prefecture
Mayor of Hagi City
Mayor of Uki City, Kumamoto Prefecture
The Former Employee of Nippon Steel Corporation
An Associate Professor of the Faculty of Science and Engineering in Iwate University
Chairman of the Tourist Guide Association of Misumi West Port
President of Kuraya Narusawa Co., Ltd.
Chairman of Izunokuni City Tourism Association
Director and General Manager of Gunkanjima Concierge
Producer of the Gunkanjima Digital Museum
Owner at Tōge Chaya
Chairman: Mr. Hidenori Date
President: Mr. Masahiro Date
Proprietor, Houraikan Inn
Representative Director of Egawa Bunko non-profit incorporated foundation
The 42nd head of the Egawa Family
Democratic Party for the People (DPP) Representative for Nagasaki Prefecture
President of the NPO, Way to World Heritage Gunkanjima
Representative Director
MI Consulting Group
President of Watanabe Production Group and Honorary Chair of Watanabe Productions Co., Ltd.
Member of the House of Councillors
Governor
Kagoshima Prefecture
World Heritage Consultant
Director and Dean, The Kyushu-Asia Institute of Leadership
Representative Director, SUMIDA, Inc.
Journalist, founder of the Shimomura Mitsuko Ikikata Juku School
Representative, Rally Nippon
Chairman, Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution World Heritage Route Promotion Council Director, National Congress of Industrial Heritage
Representative Director, General Incorporated Foundation National Congress of Industrial Heritage (Advisor, Public Interest Incorporated Foundation Capital Markets Research Institute）
Mayor of Nagasaki City
Policy Director at Heritage Montreal
World Heritage Consultant
Executive Director of Kogakuin University
Heritage Architect and International Consultant
Head of Data Acquisition at The Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation
Head of Industrial Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh
Scottish Ten Project Manager, Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh
Mayor of Izunokuni City, Shizuoka Prefecture
Pro-Provost and Chairman of Council of the Royal College of Art. Heritage advisor of Canal & River Trust for England and Wales.
Dean of Tokyo Rissho Junior College
Professor emeritus of Keio University
Mayor of Kitakyushu City
At the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee convened in Bonn, Germany, from June 28 to July 8, 2015, the decision was approved to inscribe the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution on the World Heritage list.
At a celebratory party held to mark the occasion, some of the primary promoters of the project spoke of their joy in achieving their goal and of the trials and tribulations to getting there.
Director and Managing Executive Officer, Hanshin Expressway Company Limited
Member, Board of Directors, National Congress of Industrial Heritage
Vice-Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture
Mayor of Hagi City
Chairman, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd.
Mayor of Omuta City
Deputy Director-General, Lifelong Learning Policy Bureau, MEXT
Former Counsellor, Cabinet Secretariat
Mayor of Kamaishi City
Member, Board of Directors, National Congress of Industrial Heritage Counselor, Shimadzu Limited
Chairman of the Consortium for the World Heritage Inscription of Modern Industrial Heritage (Kyushu-Yamaguchi) and governor of Kagoshima Prefecture (as of 2015)