World Heritage Listing advice, Japan

The project

Location: Japan

Artefact's Principal Dr Iain Stuart was invited by the Japan Mitsubishi Foundation and the Japanese Government to join a panel of international experts to advise on the nomination of properties to support a World Heritage listing for industrial sites. 

The panel was chaired by Sir Neil Cossons - a leading authority on industrial heritage.

The sites related to the rapid industrialisation of Japan from the middle of the 19th Century to the early 20th Century. Japan's modernisation was founded on iron and steel, shipbuilding and coal mining, particularly to meet defence needs.

Heritage solution

As part of the panel, Iain's role was to visit properties that had physical evidence demonstrating an industrial history and to fulfil the world heritage value of universal and outstanding significance.

From 2009 to 2014, Dr Stuart undertook a number of field inspections, presented at seminars and participated in workshops which evaluated properties and developed general guidelines for the management of properties.

He provided input on identification of features and technology used on the sites as well as providing comparative analysis.

The nomination process took 16 years and had the support of the Government of Japan, 19 local municipalities, owners of the working sites, and the local communities that hold component parts of the nomination.

The project culminated in the launch of the application by the then Prime Minister the late Shinzo Abe as the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining which was listed by UNESCO in 2015.

In subsequent years Dr Stuart has been invited to return to Japan to discuss the on-going management and interpretation of these sites.