PEOPLE
The historical flow of change from "Samurai to the Company" is the pride of Japan - Nagasaki, the center of Japan's Meiji Industrial Heritage Sites, will lead the way to connect to the next generation.
Mayor of Nagasaki City
July 1972: Born in Nagasaki City
Graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law
Completed graduate studies at London School of Political Science and Economics (LSE), M.A., The George Washington University Law School and The Fetcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
1991: Joined Ministry of Transport (currently Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism)
2008: Research Officer, Secretariat of International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan
2010：Director, Planning Office, Japan Tourism Agency
2014: Director, Planning and Tourism Department, Kanto District Transport Bureau
2015: Chief, International Criminal Investigation Division, Security and Rescue Department, Japan Coast Guard
2017: General Counselor of the Cabinet Office's Bureau for the Promotion of Local Entrepreneurship
2019: Counselor, General Affairs Department, Maritime Safety Agency (Rescue)
2020: Director, Maritime Security Headquarters, Fifth Region
2022: Director General, Kyushu District Transport Bureau
Retiring from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in December 2022.
2023: Appointed Mayor of Nagasaki
Feeling a Connection with the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution
Kato: First of all, congratulations on your appointment as Mayor of Nagasaki City. Mayor Suzuki was involved in the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution during your two-year term as Cabinet Secretary of the Cabinet Office in 2017, and I thank you for your many efforts for some time.
Suzuki: I am glad that our relationship continues. Nagasaki is my hometown, and I have been feeling mightily "rewarded" by the efforts to have it registered as a World Heritage site. I visited the Industrial Heritage Information Center in Tokyo the other day, and it was just wonderful.
As soon as I stepped inside, I was thrilled as Nagasaki's exhibition corner was set up just inside the entrance. I was impressed that I could understand Nagasaki better than actually being in Nagasaki.
Kato: Thank you very much.
Suzuki: Even in Nagasaki, no facility that organizes materials to that extent from the angle of industrial heritage and connects the stories to make a presentation. I realized the importance of knowing the Nagasaki’s position while looking at the Industrial Revolution in Japan from a bird's eye view.
Kato: As you know, the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution is a serial nomination with a total of 23 component parts, but Nagasaki has eight sites—including the Kosuge Slip Dock, Mitsubishi No.3 Dry Dock, the Giant Cantilever Crane, Mitsubishi Former Pattern Shop, Senshokaku Guest House, Takashima Coal Mine, Hashima Coal Mine, and Glover House and Office, making it the prefecture with the most industrial heritage sites in the country.
Suzuki: Yes. We would like to take a firm stand in terms of what role each asset has played, and we would like to communicate this widely.
Kato: We have been considering how to display the component parts at the Information Center. There are a variety of ways to relate to the heritage, but in the end, we decided to bring together a group of heritage sites associated with Mitsubishi during the Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha era. We hope visitors will feel the historical flow of change from "Samurai to the Company.”
Suzuki: I am proud of the fact that Japan was the first country to adopt Western technology and further evolve and develop it as its own, but as a citizen of Nagasaki, I am excited by the fact that this process took place in Nagasaki.
Kato: Many people involved in Mitsubishi's business visit the Information Center and are very happy to see them.
Suzuki: I am sure that is true. There are many treasures of Mitsubishi buried in Nagasaki, and the Information Center is a great place to see them in three dimensions. As a Japanese citizen, I also pay my respects to Mitsubishi and the people who have been involved in the company. At the same time, I feel that we have a heavy responsibility to protect the precious group of sites that have been registered as World Heritage sites.
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)