UNESCO · Cultural · 2015

Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining

明治日本の産業革命遺産製鉄・製鋼、造船、石炭産業めいじにっぽんのさんぎょうかくめいいさんせいてつ・せいこう、ぞうせん、せきたんさんぎょうMeiji Nippon no Sangyō Kakumei Isan: Seitetsu, Seikō, Zōsen, Sekitan Sangyō

Furnaces, docks and mines of Japan's rapid industrialisation

The Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution are 23 components in eight areas, mainly in Kyushu and Yamaguchi, that trace Japan's rapid industrialisation in iron and steel, shipbuilding and coal mining between the 1850s and 1910. Inscribed in 2015, the property is also the subject of a continuing debate over the presentation of wartime forced labour at some of its sites.

Inscribed 2015Criteria: ii, ivNagasaki Fukuoka Prefecture Saga Prefecture Kumamoto Kagoshima Yamaguchi Shizuoka Iwate

Overview

The property tells how Japan, within about half a century, went from a feudal country experimenting with Western technology to an industrial nation. In the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate, domains such as Saga, Satsuma and Choshu tried to build reverberatory furnaces, cannon and ships from Dutch books, with mixed success. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Western engineers and machinery were brought in, and by the early 20th century Japanese companies were building steel ships and running modern mines and steelworks themselves.

The 23 components are grouped in eight areas. Hagi in Yamaguchi preserves an early reverberatory furnace, a shipyard, an iron works and the castle town and school where reformers of the Meiji era were educated. Kagoshima's Shuseikan was the Satsuma domain's industrial complex; Nirayama in Shizuoka and Hashino in Kamaishi, Iwate, hold a furnace and early blast furnaces; Saga has the Mietsu naval dock. Nagasaki contributes the Mitsubishi shipyard with its dock and giant cantilever crane, the coal mines of Takashima and Hashima, and the house of the Scottish merchant Thomas Glover. The Miike coal mines, railway and ports span Fukuoka and Kumamoto, and the Imperial Steel Works at Yawata in Kitakyushu mark the start of Japan's modern steel industry in 1901.

Several components, including the Nagasaki shipyard and parts of the Yawata steelworks, are still in industrial use, which makes the property unusual on the World Heritage List and required a special management framework involving the companies that own them.

Why it is World Heritage

UNESCO inscribed the property under two criteria. It illustrates the process by which feudal Japan sought technology from Europe and America from the mid-19th century and adapted it to its own needs and social traditions — the first successful transfer of Western industrialisation to a non-Western nation (criterion ii).

The technological ensemble of iron and steel, shipbuilding and coal mining sites is testimony to Japan's achievement as the first non-Western country to industrialise successfully, an outstanding example of an industrial ensemble that reflects the rapid development of a nation (criterion iv). The property's defined period ends in 1910, before the later history of the sites.

Component sites

Hashima Coal Mine
端島炭坑Hashima Tankō
An undersea coal mine on a small island off Nagasaki, expanded by Mitsubishi from 1890 with seawalls and, later, concrete apartment blocks that earned it the nickname Gunkanjima (Battleship Island). The mine closed in 1974 and the island was abandoned.
Mitsubishi Nagasaki Shipyard
三菱長崎造船所Mitsubishi Nagasaki Zōsenjo
Includes the No. 3 Dry Dock (1905), the Giant Cantilever Crane of 1909 built in Scotland, the former pattern shop, now a museum, and the Senshokaku guest house; the dock and crane remain in use.
Former Glover House and Office
旧グラバー住宅Kyū Gurabā Jūtaku
Home of Thomas Blake Glover, the Scottish merchant who helped bring Western technology, ships and coal mining to Japan; built in 1863, it is the oldest surviving Western-style wooden building in Japan.
Imperial Steel Works, Yawata
官営八幡製鐵所Kan'ei Yahata Seitetsusho
The state steelworks opened in 1901 in today's Kitakyushu, of which the first head office, repair shop and first machine shop are inscribed, together with the Onga River pumping station that supplied its water.
Miike Coal Mine and Miike Port
三池炭鉱・三池港Miike Tankō, Miike-kō
Pit heads at Miyanohara and Manda, the coal railway and the tidal port of 1908 in Omuta and Arao, with Misumi West Port in Kumamoto; Miike was Japan's largest coal mine.
Shuseikan
旧集成館Kyū Shūseikan
Industrial complex of the Satsuma domain in Kagoshima begun under Shimazu Nariakira in the 1850s, including a machinery factory of 1865, the oldest surviving Western-style industrial building in Japan.
Hagi area
萩の産業化初期の遺産群Hagi no Sangyōka Shoki no Isan-gun
The Choshu domain's experimental reverberatory furnace, Ebisugahana Shipyard and Oitayama tatara iron works, with the castle town of Hagi and Shoka Sonjuku, the school of Yoshida Shoin.
Hashino and Nirayama
橋野鉄鉱山・韮山反射炉Hashino Tekkōzan, Nirayama Hanshano
Hashino in Kamaishi preserves the oldest surviving remains of Western-style blast furnaces in Japan, built from 1858; Nirayama in Izunokuni, completed in 1857, is the only surviving reverberatory furnace of its era known to have been in actual operation.

History

1850
The Saga domain begins building Japan's first reverberatory furnace to cast iron cannon.
1857–1858
Completion of the Nirayama furnace; Oshima Takato produces iron in a Western-style blast furnace at Kamaishi.
1868
The Meiji Restoration opens the way to state-led industrialisation.
1869
Glover and the Saga domain sink the first steam-powered coal shaft at Takashima.
1887
The government's Nagasaki shipyard passes to Mitsubishi.
1901
The Imperial Steel Works at Yawata begins production.
1910
End of the period represented by the property.
1940s
During the Second World War, Korean, Chinese and Allied prisoner workers are brought to some of the sites, including Hashima and Miike, under wartime labour mobilisation.
2015
Inscription on the World Heritage List, accompanied by Japan's statement on wartime labour and the Committee's request for an interpretation strategy covering the full history of each site.
2021
The Committee expresses strong regret that its decisions on interpretation have not yet been fully implemented.

Visiting

The components are widely scattered; the densest cluster is in and around Nagasaki, where the Glover Garden, the former pattern shop museum and boat trips to Hashima can be combined.
Landing on Hashima is possible only on licensed boat tours to a designated walkway, and only in suitable sea conditions; most of the island is closed for safety.
Operating industrial sites such as the Nagasaki shipyard and parts of Yawata are not open to the public and are viewed from outside or from designated viewpoints.
The Industrial Heritage Information Centre in Tokyo, run on behalf of the government, presents the property and its interpretation.

Frequently asked questions

What is the controversy over the Meiji Industrial Revolution sites?

South Korea objected that the history of Koreans mobilised to work in some of the sites, such as Hashima, during the Second World War lay outside the property's 1850–1910 period and would be left untold. The inscription went ahead after Japan stated that it would allow an understanding of that history.

What did Japan commit to in 2015?

Japan stated before the Committee that it was prepared to take measures allowing an understanding that a large number of Koreans and others were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites, and to include this in its interpretation strategy.

How has the commitment been followed up?

Japan opened the Industrial Heritage Information Centre in Tokyo in 2020. In 2021 the Committee welcomed some steps but strongly regretted that its decisions had not been fully implemented, and it has continued to review the interpretation; the Japanese government has maintained that the wording does not mean forced labour in a legal sense, a position disputed by South Korea.

Can you visit Hashima (Gunkanjima)?

Yes, by licensed boat tour from Nagasaki, weather permitting. Visitors may walk only along a designated route at the southern end of the island.

Why are active factories part of a World Heritage Site?

Some of the most important components, such as the No. 3 Dry Dock and the cantilever crane in Nagasaki, are still owned and used by the companies that built them; the property is managed through a partnership between the government and these operators.

Sources

1.Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution: Iron and Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining (opens in a new tab) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre
2.Decision 39 COM 8B.14 (opens in a new tab) — UNESCO World Heritage Committee
3.Decision 44 COM 7B.30 (opens in a new tab) — UNESCO World Heritage Committee
4.日本の世界遺産一覧 (opens in a new tab) — 文化庁
5.Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution (opens in a new tab) — Consortium for the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution