PEOPLE
Applying Port and Harbor Act Provisions to Conserve Operating World Heritage Sites
Vice-Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture
Academic background:
March April PhD in Civil Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
Work experience:
April 1981 Joins Ministry of Transport
(now Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) after administrative reforms in 2001)
April 1996 Special Advisor, Planning Division, Ports and Harbors Bureau, Ministry of Transport
April 1998 Director, Ports and Harbors Division, Civil Engineering Bureau, Ibaraki Prefecture
April 2000 Deputy Director-General, Ports and Harbor Promotion, Ibaraki Prefecture
July 2001 Counsellor for Coastal Management Policy, Coast Administration and Disaster Prevention Division, Ports and Harbors Bureau, MLIT
April 2003 Head of Disaster Risk Management Office, Ports and Harbors Bureau. MLIT
April 2004 Head of Ports and Harbors Security Office, Ports and Harbors Bureau, MLIT
April 2005 Director-General, Ports, Harbors and Airports Division, Kanto Region Development Bureau, MLIT
January 2008 Director, Planning Division, Ports and Harbors Bureau, MLIT
June 2009 Deputy Director-General, Kyushu Region Development Bureau, MLIT
June 2012 Counsellor for Engineering Affairs (Ports and Harbors Bureau),
Minister’s Secretariat, MLIT
January 2013 Director-General, Technology Policy Coordination, Minister’s Secretariat, MLIT
April 2014 Retires from MLIT
April 2014 Visiting Professor, Kyoto University, Graduate School of Management
May 16, 2014 Assumes current post
How did you get involved in the project to promote the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution?
My involvement began in 2010 when Ms. Koko Kato visited the Kyushu Region Development Bureau. I was deputy director-general of the bureau at the time. She explained that she was promoting an effort to get industrial heritage sites in Kyushu, Yamaguchi, Kamaishi, and Nirayama inscribed as World Heritage sites. One of those sites, Miike Port, was still in operation and was an economic facility that would need to constantly change so as to remain competitive. But the conservation requirements of the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties would adversely affect the facility’s operations. Was there some way to solve this problem? I responded without hesitation, “Apply the provisions of the Port and Harbor Act.” And that’s how it all started.
Why would the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties adversely affect port installations that are still in operation?
As the name implies, the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties aims to protect and manage properties so that they will not change. Miike Port, however, is a constantly developing industrial port. This kind of economic facility has to keep changing or it will no longer be competitive or able to maintain its value as an industrial port. The provisions of the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties are difficult to apply for operational heritage assets.
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)