PEOPLE
The Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: The Roots of Japanese Craftsmanship and Industry
Chairman, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd.
April 1970: Joins Ministry of Transport -- now Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) after administrative reforms in 2001
July 1999: Director-General, Railway Bureau, Ministry of Transport
January 2001: Director-General, Railway Bureau, MLIT
July 2001: Director-General, Maritime Bureau, MLIT
July 2002: Deputy Vice-Minister, Minister's Secretariat
July 2004: Deputy Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
July 2006: Vice-Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
July 2007: Special Advisor, MLIT
September 2009: Advisor, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd.
June 2011: Vice President, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd.
June 2015: Chairman, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. (current)
My first meeting with Ms. Koko Kato
Around the time I had retired from MLIT and was serving as chair of the Harbor Modernization Promotion Committee, Diet member Mr. Mutsuki Kato’s secretary, Mr. Katayama, contacted me and asked me to meet Kato’s daughter. That was my first meeting with Ms. Koko Kato and how I got involved with this World Heritage project. Back then, I knew very little about industrial heritage matters, but Ms. Koko Kato explained the project to me in great detail.
I was intrigued by her focus, but she told me there was a problem. “What is the problem?” I asked. “The fact that our proposal includes working properties,” she responded. The Agency for Cultural Affairs is the government administrative body responsible for World Heritage inscriptions. However, if industrial installations were registered as cultural properties under the Agency’s system, it would require considerable time and the approval of numerous offices to make any modifications thereafter. And that was as it should be. However the effect was to make companies that owned working industrial properties balk at having them inscribed as world Heritage sites.
At the time, Ms. Koko Kato was visiting the companies that owned the industrial installations in question. When I first met her, she was visiting everyone with any kind of connection to the Miike Port to try to persuade them to have their working properties inscribed into UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The response, however, was, “If we do that, we won’t be able to continue using our facilities. We don’t need to have them declared a World Heritage.” She had repeatedly tried to change their minds, but to no avail. Now she had come to me for help. What should she do?
Former Director of Nagasaki City World Heritage Office
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)