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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
This article is the second in a two part-series. Part 1 introduced Katō Kōko as the pivotal figure behind the World Heritage inscription process and the controversial historical narratives of “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution.” Using Hashima Island as an example, part 1 criticised Katō's omission of the history of Korean and other forced labor, and discussed the significance of Katō's historical revisionism in the Industrial Heritage Information Centre in Tokyo. Part 2 explores Katō's leading roles in several heritage related bodies in Japan. This allowed her to present historical evidence selectively and to interpret it to support her celebratory narrative of the Japanese industrial revolution while denying the relevant history of foreign forced labor. Her official roles were critical in creating platforms for neo-nationalism that legitimate radical historical revisionism. Katō's cooperation with UNESCO is demonstrably dishonest and she should be removed from her heritage related roles in order for Japan to honour its commitment at the time of World Heritage inscription to acknowledge the history of Koreans and others who were forced to work at these sites during wartime.
1 Daily Shincho, “Katō Mutsuki's eldest daughter.”
2 World Heritage Council for the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution website, Contact Us.
3 Daily Shincho and Yahoo News Japan, Talk between Katō Kōko and Satō Masaru.
4 WHCSJMIR, “The way to World Heritage,”
5 Cabinet Secretariat, Kadō shisan wo fukumu sangyō isan ni kansuru yūshikisha kaigi iin meibo [Expert Committee on the Industrial Heritage including Operational Properties member list], 2012; Cabinet Secretariat, Dai-ikkai kadō shisan wo fukumu sangyō isan ni kansuru yūshikisha kaigi [The third meeting of the Expert Committee on the Industrial Heritage including Operational Properties], 2 September 2013.
6 Stuart B. Smith, “World Heritage Sites of Japan's Meiji industrial revolution,” TICCIH Bulletin Number 62, 4th quarter 2013, pp. 9-10.
7 Sankei News, “‘Mono-dzukuri kokka tsukutta Nihonjin no doryoku tsutaetai’ Sangyō isan kokumin kaigi semmu riji Katō Kōko-san” [“‘I want to convey the efforts of the Japanese people who made the country an industrial nation’ Katō Kōko, Managing Director of the National Congress of Industrial Heritage”], Sankei News, 3 July 2015.
8 WHC.15 /39.COM /INF.19 pp. 5.
9 Interview with Shimomura Mitsuko by Katō Kōko and Takashima Takeo for Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution website. 10 July 2018; WHCSJMIR, “The way to World Heritage.”
10 Interview with Shimomura Mitsuko; Daily Shincho and Yahoo News Japan, Talk between Katō Kōko and Satō Masaru.
11 Daily Shincho, “Paku Kune daitōryō ni ‘90 pāsento no manzoku’ wo ataeta ‘sekai isan’ nippon no shittai” [“Japan's World Heritage mismanagement which gave President Park Geun-hye approval rate of 90 percent”], 16 July 2015.
12 Daily Shincho, “Katō Mutsuki's eldest daughter.”
13 At this time, Katō Kōko's brother-in-law Katō Katsunobu was serving as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary. See for example Nihon Keizai Shimbun, “Naikaku kanbō san'yo ni Katō-shi ninmei sangyō isan tōroku ni muke [Katō appointed as Special Advisor to the Cabinet – Towards Industrial heritage inscription”, 2 July 2015.
14 No official job description available, but Katō's responsibilities as Special Advisor are described for example in Junior Chamber International - Sasebo/ Sasebo shōnen kaigisho, “Kyōshi purofīru [Lecturer profiles]”, in Nextage Sasebo promotional poster, pp.2.
15 Kobayashi Hisatomo of the Network for Research on Forced Labor Mobilization has investigated Katō Kōko's privatization of Japan's industrial heritage production. Details in reference documents from the Network for Research on Forced Labor Mobilization Online Symposium 18 September 2021. Pp. 43-56.
16 Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, Interpretation Strategy appendix g)-1, 2017, pp. 83/451.
17 Kobayashi, “reference documents 18 Sep. 2021,” pp.48-49. New address of the NCIH, shared with three of the Katō family's companies (the Vacance Corporation, Mutsukado K.K., and Wakō sangyō K.K.) is Japan Fuji Corp. Room 201, 5-28-1 Nakano-ku, Nakano, Tokyo. The address of the Vacance Corporation has not been updated on its official website since the move (as of October 2021), still displaying its old address also previously shared with the NCIH: International Place 5F, 11-16 Yotsuya Sanei-chō, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo.
18 H.M. Kang, “Abe Administration Signs Massive Contract with Agency Accused of Distorting History,” the Korea Bizwire, 24 June 2020.
19 Kobayashi, “reference documents 18 Sep. 2021,” pp. 45-46.
20 Okuhara, “Ex-Abe advisor Koko Kato.”
21 Daily Shincho, “Katō Mutsuki's eldest daughter.”
22 NCIH Certificate of full registry records (heisa tōhon) 15 December 2020, shared with author by Kobayashi Hisatomo of the Network for Research on Forced Labor Mobilization.
23 Cabinet Secretariat, Heisei 28-nendo chihō zeisei kaisei (zei futan keigen sochitō) yōbō jikō [Requests for 2016 local tax reforms (reduction measures for tax burdens)], 2016.
24 The Yahata Steel outdoor museum was already in place and could easily be visited in 2015, the date of inscription. Nippon Steel supported this local museum and funded it previously, and it was distant from the actual steel production plants. The inscription simply allowed an existing museum to gain World Heritage status. Imai most likely feared more publicity for litigations against Nippon Steel by former forced laborers then underway in Seoul, rather than any potential problems with steel production. See Imai Takashi, “Imai Takashi meiyo kaichō go-aisatsu” [“Greetings from Honorary Chairman Imai Takashi”]. National Congress of Industrial Heritage website. 11 June 2013.
25 President (magazine), “Ningen kaikō - Imai Takashi x Katō Kōko -‘Hamaguri no kai’ no goen” [“Human encounter - Imai Takashi x Katō Kōko – destined meeting of ‘Hamaguri no kai‘”], 2 February 2015, as cited in “Katō Kōko”, Wikipedia, accessed 4 October 2021.
26 NCIH webpage. Soshiki taisei [Organizational structure].
27 The NCIH has registered neither Chairman Kojima nor Honorary Chairman Imai in official registration forms which copies are obtainable from Japanese authorities. Confirmed through e-mail correspondence with Kobayashi Hisatomo, 25-29 September 2021.
28 World Heritage Council for the Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution, “Meiji Nippon no sangyō kakumei isan” sekai isan rūto suishin kyōgikai sōkai ga kaisai saremashita“ [”‘Meiji Japan's Industrial Revolutionary Heritage’ World Heritage Route Promotion Council General Assembly was held“], 9 November 2017.
29 Mizui Takako, “The Meiji industrial heritage objected to by Korea.”
30 Okuhara, “Ex-Abe advisor Koko Kato.”
31 IHIC homepage.
32 Ōta Narumi, “Gunkanjima moto tōmin ‘chōyōkō sabetsu, kīta koto nai’- Shisetsu de shōkai” [“‘Never heard of discrimination against conscripted workers’ - statement by former Battleship Island resident introduced in the center”], Asahi Shimbun Digital, 14 June 2020.
33 IHIC website, Industrial Heritage Information Centre Exhibitions, accessed 4 October 2021.
34 Clément, Herrmann & Phillips, “Report on the UNESCO/ICOMOS mission,” pp. 16.
35 Okuhara, “Ex-Abe advisor Koko Kato.”
36 NCIH Twitter post, “Gaido-san ga Katō Kōko kara kenshū wo ukeraremashita” [“The guides were trained by Kōko Katō”], 9 October 2020.
37 DHC TV program, “Shinsō fukairi! Toranomon nyūsu” [“Enter deep truth! Toranomon news”], episode aired 1 July 2020. Previously available on YouTube. See also Yano Hideki, “‘Sangyō isan jōhō sentā‘ wo kengaku shite” [“Visiting the Industrial Heritage Information Centre”], Kyōsei dōin mondai kaiketsu to kako seisan no tame no kyōdō kōdō website, 4 April 2020.
38 Clément, Herrmann & Phillips, “Report on the UNESCO/ICOMOS mission,” pp. 17.
39 As of June 2021. See Clément, Herrmann & Phillips, “Report on the UNESCO/ICOMOS mission,” pp. 56; Yano, “the Industrial Heritage Information Centre.”
40 NCIH, Truth of Gunkanjima website, “Witnesses” tab.
41 Clément, Herrmann & Phillips, “Report on the UNESCO/ICOMOS mission,” pp. 13.
42 Ibid.
43 Ibid pp. 18.
44 Ibid pp. 15, 42-42.
45 See for example Palmer, “Japan's World Heritage Miike Coal Mine” for more on how official narratives ignores the experience of workers and focus on the acquisition of new industrial machines to glorify the Meiji Era industrialization. Palmer's investigation of allied POW's as wartime forced laborers in the Miike Coal Mine is also highly relevant to this discussion.
46 Ryoko Nakano, “Mobilizing Meiji Nostalgia and Intentional Forgetting in Japan's World Heritage Promotion,” International Journal of Asian Studies 18 (1), 16 September 2020, pp. 27.
47 Sakurai Yoshiko, “Japan's new Prime Minister expected to follow Abe's historical perspective,” translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 918 in the 24 September 2020 issue of The Weekly Shincho.
48 NCIH Twitter post, “APA gurūpu daihyō no Motoya Toshio-sama ni sentā ni okoshi itadakimashita!” [“APA Group representative Motoya Toshio came to our centre!”], 6 October 2020.
49 NCIH Twitter post, “Yamaoka Tetsuhide-sensei go-ikkō sama ni sangyō isan jōhō sentā wo saihō itadakimashita” [“Yamaoka Tetsuhide and affiliates visited the Industrial Heritage Information Centre again”], 13 November 2020; NCIH Twitter post, “Yamaoka Tetsuhide-sensei ni go-raikan itadakimashita!” [“Yamaoka Tetsuhide visited our centre!”], 20 October 2020.
50 NCIH Twitter post, “Hachigatsu mikka ni Kento Girubāto-sama ni okoshi itadakimashita!” [“Kent Gilbert visited on 3 August!”], 7 October 2020.
51 NCIH Twitter post, “Honjitsu wa Shijitsu wo sekai ni hasshin suru kai no mina-sama ga goraikan saremashita!” [“Today, the members of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact visited our centre”], 25 January 2021.
52 Both Sakurai Yoshiko and Kent Gilbert features extensively, denying the history of Japanese military sexual slavery in Miki Dezaki's highly relevant documentary movie Shusenjo: The Main Battleground Of Comfort Women Issue, 2018. See trailer on YouTube.
53 Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, “Our country.”
54 Motoya Toshio is the head of APA Hotels, one of Japan's largest hotel chains. Motoya authors neo-nationalistic books under the pen-name Seiji Fuji in which he denies the Nanking Massacre and Japanese wartime sexual slavery. For example, Theoretical Modern History II -The real History of Japan - Japan Pride IV - A proposal for revival (2016). His books, some in both Japanese and English, are sold in APA hotel receptions and placed in every guestroom in every APA hotel. See for example BBC News Japan, 19 January 2017.
55 Shoheijuku website, “Sangyō isan kokumin kaigi senmu riji Katō Kōko-sama [Kōko Katō, Managing Director, National Congress of Industrial Heritage],” Dai 113-kai Shoheijuku getsureikai repōto, 25 November 2020.
56 Bunkajin TV, “‘Gunkanjima, shin no rekishi,’ Sangyō isan jōhō sentāchō Katō Kōko-shi x Katō Kiyotaka no SP taidan kanzenban” [“‘Battleship Island, the real history,’ Industrial Heritage Information Centre Director Katō Kōko and Katō Kiyotaka's talk special - full edition”], YouTube video, 2020 (accessed 14 March 2021, but has since been made private).
57 WWUK TV interview with Katō Kōko on YouTube.
58 Kent Channel, “Kento Girubāto osusume! ‘Sangyō isan jōhō sentā’ ni tsuite Gunkanjima moto tōmin no shōgen” [“Kent Gilbert recommends! About the ‘Industrial Heritage Information Centre’ - Testimonies of former residents of Battleship Island”], YouTube video, 20 August 2020.
59 Ibid.
60 Excite News, Abe shushō ga tōtō neto-uyo no sōkutsu DHC “toranomon nyūsu” ni shutsuen! Taifū ya Ishiba Shigeru to no tōron kara nige o-nakama to jareai [Prime Minister Abe impudent appearance on DHC's ‘Toranomon News’, the nest of the neo-nationalist cyber community! Ignores the typhoon and the discussion with Shigeru Ishiba and plays around with his friends], 6 September 2018.
61 DHC TV, “Toranomon nyūsu,” 1 July 2020.
62 DHC TV program, “Shinsō fukairi! Toranomon nyūsu [Enter deep truth! Toranomon news],” aired 17 November 2020, previously viewable on YouTube (accessed 24 March 2021); DHC TV program, “Shinsō fukairi! Toranomon nyūsu [Enter deep truth! Toranomon news],” aired 1 September 2020. Viewable on YouTube (accessed 4 October 2021).
63 “Nyūsu Joshi” was produced by DHC TV and was until March 2018 broadcasted on Japanese TV station Tokyo MX. Tokyo MX stopped broadcasting the show after they faced lawsuits and were warned by the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization of Japan over hate-speech related human rights infringements in an episode broadcasted in 2017. It discussed protests against US military bases on Okinawa. “Nyūsu Joshi” referred to protestors as “terrorists” and suggested protests were actually led by a small Zainichi Korean organization against hate speech whose leader was named on the show. DHC TV continued to broadcast the now highly controversial “Nyūsu Joshi” on their own platforms, resulting in a new lawsuit against them. DHC TV decided in January 2021 to stop production of the show and published the last episode in March 2021. Katō Kōko appeared on the show in February 2021 amidst the ongoing anti-Korean hate speech controversy. A Tokyo court ruled in September 2021 that DHC TV must pay compensation and publicly apologize for defamation of the Zainichi organization leader. CEO of DHC TV is refusing to apologize, and the broadcaster continues to be criticized for disseminating hate speech against Koreans. See Mizuno Yasushi, “The stain left on broadcasting history by ‘Nyūsu Joshi’” [“‘Nyūsu joshi’ ga hōsō-shi ni nokoreta oten”], President Online, 30 September 2021.
64 DHC TV program, “‘Nyūsu joshi’ #305 (Meiji Nippon no sangyō kakumei isan kara manabubeki koto. Hinshi no masumedia ni kiku tokkōyaku)” [“‘News women’ nr. 305 (What can be learned from Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution. Special medicine effective for the weak mass media)”], 16 February 2021.
65 Clément, Herrmann & Phillips, “Report on the UNESCO/ICOMOS mission,” pp. 20.
66 An Chaesŏng, Shinbulsan: Ppalch'isan Ku Yŏnch‘ŏl saengaesa [Shinbulsan: The life story of freedom fighter Ku Yŏnch‘ŏl] (Sanjini 2011).
67 Ibid.
68 Chang Chaewan, “‘Nuumyŏn kŭnyang songjang… Saramin'ga shiptŏranikke’” [“‘Just a corpse if lying down… Not like living humans’”]. Oh My News, 31 January 2011.
69 Channel A News 2017, “‘Nanŭn kunhamdo 4416pŏniŏtta’ saengsaeng chŭngŏn” [“‘I was no. 4416 on Battleship Island‘- vivid testimony”], 16 July 2017.
70 Yi Hyosŏk, “‘Kunhamdoesŏ sogoshipko chumŏkpap mŏkŭmyŏ noyŏk…Choguk wŏnmanghaetta’” [“On Battleship Island I wore underwear and ate rice balls while working… I resented the homeland’”]. Yonhap News, 27 July 2017.
71 Yun Yongmin, “Kŭllojŏngsindae simin moim, 3~7il il kangjejingyong chiyŏk tapsa” [“Women's labor force citizen meeting, forced conscription survey in Japan from 3rd to 7th”], News 1, 1 June 2015.
72 An Chaesŏng, “Shinbulsan.”
73 NCIH and Hashima Islanders for Historical Truth, Video Message “Who is Yeon Cheol Koo?,” 18 May 2019.
74 “detarame na otoko” - translated as Ku Yŏnch'ŏl himself being “rubbish” in the video's official English subtitles. Directly translatable as “nonsensical man.”
75 Katō Kōko, “Tondemo Kankokujin ni Gunkanjima no moto jūmin ga gekido, Nippon e no zōo wo aoru kōtōmukeina gendō to wa” [“Former residents of Battleship Island are raging against crazy Korean - These are his preposterous actions that stirs hate against Japan”]. Daily Shincho, 25 February 2019.
76 Katō Kōko, UNESCO Decision and UNESCO-ICOMOS Expert Report, statement on website Truth of Gunkanjima, 4 August 2021.
77 NCIH and Hashima Islanders for Historical Truth, The Residents of Hashima Island voice how much they are angry towards the 44th UNESCO Decision, video posted 19 August 2021.
78 Nakamura's role as Chief Guide of the IHIC can be confirmed in Clément, Herrmann & Phillips, “Report on the UNESCO/ICOMOS mission,” pp. 52.
79 The contents of the article have been posted online with English translations by Japanese blogger Nishitatsu1234 on his blog, 16 August 2021.
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