PEOPLE
What is the value of World Heritage? - The viewpoint necessary to protect World Heritage sites is not to overlook what is essential.
Former Director of Nagasaki City World Heritage Office
Yoichi Tanaka
1985: Joined Nagasaki City Office
2010: Director, Nagasaki City World Heritage Office
2017: Nagasaki City Policy Director (In charge of World Heritage)
2019: Director of Commerce and Industry, Nagasaki City
2022: Retirement from Office
Current : Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nagasaki Ropeway and Aquarium
Churches first or industrial heritage sites first? ・・・・.
Kato: Mr. Tanaka was the director of the Nagasaki World Heritage Office for many years and was one of the people who helped us in the road to inscribe the Heritage of Meiji Industrial Revolution on the World Heritage List. I would like to thank you once again for your support.
Tanaka: It is an honour. It was registered in 2015, so it has been almost 10 years now. I think it has been a long and difficult road to get there.
Kato: In the Nagasaki area, there were eight candidate sites for inclusion in the heritage list from an early stage: the “No. 3 Dockyard,” the “Old Lumberyard,” the “Giant Cantilever Crane,” the “Senshokaku,” the “Kosuge Ship Repair Dock,” the “Takashima Coal Mine,” the “Hashima Coal Mine” and the “Old Glover House.” We are grateful for the efforts of then-Mayor Taue and all the people involved in Nagasaki. I think they overcame a difficult phase.
Tanaka: In the case of Nagasaki City, two World Heritage Sites emerged: the Nagasaki Churches and Christian Heritage Site (later renamed the Sites Related to Nagasaki and Amakusa Region’s Crypto-Christian) and Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution. However, due to the rule that two heritage sites cannot be registered at once, we faced the vexed question of which one to prioritize. Personally, those days left a lasting impression on me.
Kato: I am told the churches were already on the provisional list before our project was launched. So, at the beginning, the prefecture and the city council were unanimously opposed to the idea of proceeding with the registration of the industrial heritage site on the World Heritage List.
Tanaka: The unanimous opinion was that having two World Heritage sites in Nagasaki would be great. However, there was a growing circle of support among the citizens to register the churches. Then, the proposal to inscribe the industrial heritage site on the World Heritage List emerged, and there was some confusion, so I understand that the prefecture and the city expressed their intention to prioritize the church complex.
Kato: Even so, we felt that we must not stop making progress, and we were proceeding with the project on fragile ground, deciding what component parts of Nagasaki should be, despite the fact that Nagasaki Prefecture had asked us to wait. All of the component parts relating to Nagasaki's industrial heritage are located in the city of Nagasaki, so we thought that even if the prefecture denied us, there was hope if we could get the backing of the city of Nagasaki. If not, we would have to take further steps.
Tanaka: You mean getting Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ (MHI) agreement, right?
Kato: According to the new CMP (Consent Management Platform) concept, if we could get the agreement from the owner, we could register even if we could not get approval from the local administration. So, we repeatedly approached MHI and were able to set up a process to register directly with them and obtain their agreement. Do you remember that I contacted Mr. Tanaka at that time and asked you what you wanted to do?
Tanaka: I remember it well. I immediately contacted the mayor, who was on a business trip abroad. From the outset, Nagasaki City had no intention of not registering the industrial heritage sites as a World Heritage Site. Therefore, I understood that it was not a question of whether the churches or the industrial heritage sites emerged first, but rather, the city decided to give priority to the one that was more ready, which, as a result, came to the conclusion that the industrial heritage sites should be registered first.
Kato: Thanks to your support, the nomination of Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution was decided in 2013, and we were able to register them as World Heritage sites. However, Mr. Tanaka, then head of the Nagasaki World Heritage Office, must have had a hard time because you were caught between the Churches and the Industrial Heritages. You must have felt reckless and burnt out at times.
Tanaka: I'd be lying if I said it wasn't hard work. (Laughs) But it was my mission to coordinate, so I took it as my duty to do what we could do straightforwardly in line with the discussions at the time.
Kato: From your perspective, how did you approach the citizens?
Tanaka: We started by telling them what an industrial heritage site is. We tried to get them to understand the need to inscribe the property, which is fading day by day, on the World Heritage List at the earliest possible stage. It was not an easy task, but as a result, the people involved with the churches changed their minds and took a longer-term view of the World Heritage List, and their generosity has been a great blessing. From there, we were able to clarify our priorities: first, we would work hard to get the industrial heritage site inscribed on the World Heritage List, and then we would put all our efforts into getting the church complex inscribed on the World Heritage List.
It is also true that we were able to make use of our experience with the industrial heritage in the fold of the churches.
Kato: In 2018, the church complex was also inscribed on the World Heritage List.
Tanaka: Nagasaki is now widely known as a place blessed with two World Heritage Sites and 24 component parts. Above all, I was delighted to hear many comments from residents saying they were proud of Nagasaki. I am personally grateful for the unique experience of being involved in a historical event.
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)