PEOPLE
The Tea Plantation Hill Where You Can See Two World Heritage Sites at Once, Mt. Fuji and the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnaces--The Next Dream Is a "Mini Reverberatory Furnace for Children" to Provide Experiential Learning
Mayor of Izunokuni City, Shizuoka Prefecture
1944 Born April 20
1963 Graduated from Nirayama Prefectural High School (Shizuoka Pref.)
1967 Graduated from Nihon University College of Art
Sept. 2001~April 2003 Nirayama Town Council Councilwoman (1 year, 7 months)
April 2003~March 2013 Shizuoka Prefectural Assembly Assemblywoman (9 years, 11 months)
April 2013~Present Mayor, Izunokuni
——On December 11, 2016, the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnaces Guidance Center opened as a center for sharing information about reverberatory furnaces. There is a very dramatic 8-minute introductory video made with computer graphics that is shown repeatedly on a large screen, and the volunteer guides’ explanation of the furnaces is quite easy to understand, so I thought it was a wonderful facility. How has the attendance and reaction from visitors been since it opened?
During the six-day New Year holiday, from December 29 to January 3, there were 8,966 visitors, so it was a tremendous success. I also visited frequently, but on just the first day of the holidays alone, the 29th, there were about 1,700 visitors who came and enjoyed the exhibits and video inside the center, strolled around the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnaces, and then climbed the nearby hills of the tea plantation to take in the magnificent view. On that day, the Izu Nagaoka Hot Springs was fully booked and almost all of the visitors to the center stayed on that evening at the nearby inns and hotels. As a local government official, that felt like a major accomplishment.
That’s because after it was listed as a World Heritage site, the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnaces was included in the travel companies’ tour routes, and so we began getting 750,000 visitors a year. But unfortunately, the pattern was that most of those people arrived en masse in big buses, they would take a commemorative photo at the furnaces, and then they hurry off to the next tourist spot (she smiles wryly). In other words, the amount of time they were spending there was very short. One of our issues was how to overcome that, and I think that the Guidance Center has become a good first step. But we still have a long way to go.
I personally am inviting guests from Japan and abroad whenever I have the chance. On December 23, Mr. Franco Moretti, chairman of the Puccini Festival of Italy, visited with his wife and some of the singers. They praised the beauty of the Cor-Ten steel color of the center’s exterior, which was intended to resemble iron, and the graceful appearance of the reverberatory furnaces that look just like an old castle, and after seeing the introductory video in the center, they stood, applauded, and exclaimed, “Bravo!” And in addition to the center and the furnaces, they extolled the combination of the grassy lawn that spreads out in front of the center and the tea plantations in the background, seeing it as an outdoor stage.
——According to my taxi driver, if you climb up the tea plantation, on a clear day you can see both Mount Fuji and the Nirayama Reverberatory Furnaces, so you can see two World Heritage sites at one time.
That’s right, it’s a hill where you can look out and get a double dose of World Heritage. Everyone always exclaims in wonder when they see that beautiful scenery. At the end of the year, the Mongolian minister to Japan and his party visited, and when I took them to the tea plantation at dusk, when Mount Fuji is the most beautiful, they were so moved that they stood there motionless until the sun went down.
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)