PEOPLE

“A good concept" was the first thing you said at the opening of the meeting.

Kato: Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule today. You are a great friend of my father's and a mentor to me. When it came to the World Heritage registration, I consulted with you at a difficult time and in a tough situation.

Hieda: No, I was just sending encouragement. How many years has it been since your father (Mr. Mutsuki) passed away?

Kato: He passed away in 2006, so it has been 18 years. The World Heritage registration was in 2015, but I think he would have been very happy if he had lived. After all, I was always doing things that annoyed my father.

Hieda: Hahaha. Your father might have wanted you to marry a government official and take over the family business. He must have been surprised that you flew to the United States because you wanted to attend Harvard University.

Kato: He was vehemently opposed, but I went to Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and Politics to study urban economics. After returning to Japan, my father was extremely pleased when I published a book titled "A Journey into the History of Industrial Heritage: 'Regions and Citizens'" from Nihon Keizai Shimbun in 1999. In his speech at the publication party, he encouraged me, saying, "You must have been taken care of by Japan, too. Don't just introduce examples from other countries; you must try to give back to Japan.” I decided to take a positive approach, and that was the beginning of everything.

Hieda: That's a good story. It is great that you turned your attention from there to Japan, and led to the registration of Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution as a World Heritage site.

Kato: In the beginning, we did not have a concrete plan, but Mr. Kimiyasu Shimazu (then Vice President of Shimadzu Corporation), who had read a review of "Industrial Heritage" in Nikkei Business, approached me and said, "I want to make Shuseikan in Kagoshima a World Heritage site.” This was a major turning point for me. I travelled to Cornwell in southern England to interview the late Mr. Steuart Smith, former Executive Director of the International Committee for the Preservation of Industrial Heritage, and this is how my relationship with Mr. Smith began. It was 2002 when I took him to Shuseikan in Kagoshima, the Nagasaki Shipyard Museum of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kosuge Ship Repairing Dock Heritage Site, and Takashima Coal Mine in Nagasaki.

Hieda: You have great energy. And you did it on your own, didn't you?

Kato: That's right. I drove with Mr. Smith in the passenger seat (laughs). It is a good memory now, in any case. He showed a strong interest in and high regard for Japan's industrial heritage sites and pointed out to me that “although it would be difficult to register a single industrial heritage site, there was a possibility of registering a group of scattered industrial heritage sites as a serial World Heritage Site.” These words encouraged me to take the first step toward world registration.

Hieda: I heard that he embarked on a great ocean voyage. That was really brave.

Kato: Of course, I had decided to proceed with the project on my own, but in the end, I was going to ask my father for advice. But then my father passed away, and I had no one to turn to. It was at that time that I asked you, Chairman Hieda if you would understand, and for the first time, I told you in detail about my plan to register Japan's industrial heritage sites on the World Heritage List. It was in the chairman's office of Fuji Television Network, Inc. in Odaiba, the same place as today.

Hieda: There is also an industrial heritage site in Odaiba. Shinagawa Daiba (Shinagawa Battery Islands) was built by the Tokugawa Shogunate off the coast of Shinagawa in Edo Bay to house gun batteries when Perry (Matthew Calbraith Perry) came to Japan during the Edo period. This is the origin of Odaiba. Today, the third and sixth daiba remain in Odaiba Park, I think.　I would like to visit one day, but I have been too busy to go there.

Kato: Is that right? At first, turrets were included in the conceptual plan for the industrial heritage group, but we could not put them together because there were so many of them left all over Japan. Unfortunately, Odaiba is not included in Japan’s Meiji Industrial Heritage Sites, but there is no doubt that it is one of its valuable historical assets.

Hieda: I think it is very important to consider that Japan exists today because of such facts and the people who were involved in it. I am proud of the people who thought they had to stand up for Japan, their ability to act, their leadership, their wisdom, and their sense of responsibility. ......

Wisdom is necessary to accomplish a goal, and courage and energy are also indispensable. If we think of how talented the Japanese people are, we will feel empowered.

Kato: At that time, the first thing you said to me was, "That's a good idea, and I agree with it.”

Hieda: I had a vague feeling that Japanese education and the way it should be is fading away. I also like stories about the end of the Edo period myself, and I respect Yoshida Shoin as my mentor in life. I guess I was quick to get into the groove because of that. Anyway, when I heard your story, it hit me that industrial heritage sites are a part of Japanese culture and an epoch-making event from the historical aspect of Japan, so it is absolutely necessary to pass it on.