For the attention of:
The Honourable Fumio Kishida,
Prime Minister of JapanThe Honourable Tetsuo Saito,
Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
The Honourable Shinsuke Suematsu,
Minister of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology
Mr Shun’ichi Tokura,Commissioner for Cultural Affairs
Ms Yuriko Koike,
Governor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Mr Shigeki Miyake,Speaker of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly
Mr Yuji Fujita,
Superintendent of Education,
Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Mr Masaaki Takei,
Mayor of Minato CityMr Kazuyuki Kiyohara,
Chairman of Minato City Assembly
Mr Mikio Urata,
Superintendent of Education, Minato City
Mr Yuji Fukasawa,President, East Japan Railway Company
Our Ref.: MSQ/GJ/23

Paris, 28 January 2022

Subject: Heritage Alert - Takanawa Chikutei maritime railway track embankment
Dear Madam, Sir, Your Excellency,ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, is the preeminent organization representing
professionals involved in conserving cultural heritage worldwide. With a membership of over 10,500
members from 130 countries, ICOMOS advocates for the preservation and protection of cultural heritage
places and is an advisory body to the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
To add to the already substantial national alarm, raised among others by ICOMOS Japan, ICOMOS isissuing a worldwide Heritage Alert, our most consequential expression of concern, to amplify awareness of
the imminent and irreversible threats to the Takanawa Chikutei maritime railway track embankment in theform of its on-going, partial but substantial destruction after its rescue excavation and recording.
The Takanawa Chikutei maritime railway track embankment was a railway bed built on the sea between
Shinbashi and Shinagawa as a part of the Shimbashi-Yokohama railway, the first railway in Japan. TheTakanawa Chikutei marks the genesis of the history of railways in Japan, and the starting point of Japan'smodernisation. It is the first nationally-owned railway in Asia to be strategically planned and financed by
the Japanese, not by the colonisers. Technically, it is a hybrid structure, integrating foreign construction
techniques from the UK with native Japanese construction techniques. Those factors, and its extremely
good state of in situ preservation, make the Takanawa Chikutei maritime railway track embankment aheritage of highly significant national and international importance.
ICOMOS believes that the dismantling of these extremely well-preserved and significant remains andforcing construction work to proceed without sufficient public access to the site, not allowing the generalpublic to appreciate and assess the importance of this heritage is of serious concern in terms of thenational and metropolitan government's policy for the protection of cultural heritage. It will undoubtedly
leave its mark as a most regrettable precedent at both the national and international level. .

ICOMOS - 11 rue du Séminaire de Conflans - 94220 Charenton-le-Pont - France+ 33 (0) 1 41 94 17 59 - secretariat@icomos.org - www.icomos.org

ICOMOS calls upon the East Japan Railway Company, the entity responsible for the development, toimmediately suspend its ongoing excavation-recording-destruction cycle of the Takanawa embankment
and allow much wider public access than implemented so far. It further urges the Company to review its
development plans, which are based on the destruction of large sections of the embankment, and to fully
preserve the remaining sections of the embankment in their entirety in situ.
ICOMOS also calls upon the concerned national ministries, agencies and local governments and theirsections to make the utmost effort to ensure the preservation of this heritage of high national andinternational significance and value, and offers both the Company and the authorities the full scope of its
expertise to support them in doing so.
Yours sincerely,

Mario Santana
Secretary General of ICOMOS

Letter sent to:
The Honorable Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan
Cabinet Public Relations Office, Cabinet Secretariat,
1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 - 8968, JapanThe Honorable Tetsuo Saito, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Cabinet Public Relations Office, Cabinet Secretariat,
1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8968, JapanThe Honorable Shinsuke Suematsu, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,
3-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8959, JapanMr Shun’ichi Tokura, Commissioner for Cultural Affairs
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, 3-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8959,
Japan
Ms Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government
8-1 Nishi-Shinjuku 2-chome, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8001, JapanMr Shigeki Miyake, Speaker of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly
Public Relations Division, Administration Department, Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly,
8-1, Nishi-Shinjuku 2-chome, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8001, JapanMr Yuji Fujita, Superintendent of Education, Tokyo Metropolitan Government
Educational Information Section, General Affairs Division, Office of Education, Tokyo Metropolitan
Government,
2-8-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-8001, JapanMr Masaaki Takei, Mayor of Minato City
Minato City, 1-5-25, Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8511, JapanMr Kazuyuki Kiyohara, Chairman of Minato City Assembly
Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8511, Japan

Minato City Council Secretariat, 1-5-25,

Mr Mikio Urata, Superintendent of Education, Minato City
1-5-25, Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8511, Japan

Minato City, Board of Education Secretariat,

Mr Yuji Fukasawa, President, East Japan Railway Company
Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-8578, Japan

East Japan Railway Company, 2-2-2