PEOPLE
From Kamaishi to Yawata: The Proud Heritage of Japan's Modern Iron Industry
Mayor of Kamaishi City
Born in1953 in Kamaishi City. After attending the Iwate Prefectural Kamaishi Minami Senior High School (now Kamaishi Senior High School), graduated from Senshu University Faculty of Law in March 1976. From April 1988, assumed the post of director of the Noda Gakuen Koto Kindergarten, and from April 2003 to October 2007 served as a member of the Iwate Prefectural Assembly. From November 2005 to October 2007 was president of Noda Gakuen. Elected mayor of Kamaishi City on November 18, 2007.
Reforming Government Regulations
In 2010, Mr. Tatsuo Hirano, a member in the House of Cuncilors who comes from Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture, was a Senior Vice Minister in the Cabinet Office. At that time, the Consortium for the World Heritage Inscription of Modern Industrial Heritage Sites in Kyushu and Yamaguchi was planning to go the conventional route and apply for World Heritage inscription through the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The Agency was reluctant to take it up, however, because there was no precedent for registering operating facilities as World Heritage sites. That’s when Ms. Koko Kato of the National Congress of Industrial Heritage suggested that a new system needed to be created. Mr. Hirano was the first government minister to pick up on her idea, and as it happened, he was in charge of reforming government regulations. We met with Mr. Hirano and consulted Ms. Kato, and that is how we got involved in the project to apply for World Heritage standing. Repeated discussions with Ms. Kato helped to deepen Mr. Hirano’s understanding of the problem, and we began to have a glimmer of hope that there might be a way to World Heritage inscription without going through the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Iwate Prefecture was just on the verge of getting Hiraizumi nominated for the World Heritage List and was working in tandem on the project with the Agency for Cultural Affairs. It wasn’t advisable that Kamaishi should take an adversarial stance against the Agency at such a time, so we tried hard to stay on good terms while working in the background to get the regulations changed.
Since then the Liberal Democratic Party has taken over the reins, but we were able to stay on track, get a framework for our project within the Cabinet Office, and got the government to make a formal nomination to UNESCO. The fact that we are an area that was stricken by the 2011 great earthquake had a lot to do with it. The Kamaishi ironworks are an important component of the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution. Failure to get Kamaishi included would be a national tragedy. It was good to know that the Chief Cabinet Secretary understood this.
Former General Manager, Nagasaki Shipyard and Machinery Works, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Chairman, Fujisankei Group
Executive Managing Advisor, Fuji Television Network, Inc.
Executive Managing Advisor, Fuji Media Holdings, Inc.
Advisor, Federation of Japan Port and Airport Construction Association
(Ex. Chairman of Specialists Center of Port and Airport Engineering)
Mayor of Nagasaki City
Former Director of the Sano Tsunetami Memorial Museum (currently known as Sano Tsunetami and the Mietsu Naval Dock History Museum)
Director of NPO Association for Thinking about Satoyama
Director of National Congress of the Industrial Heritage
Honorary Chief Priest Toshinari Ueda
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)