Koko Kato

Koko Kato is managing director of the Industrial Heritage Information Center (IHIC) on Meiji Japan's World Heritage industrial revolution sites. She served as a special advisor in the Cabinet Secretariat of the Prime Minister of Japan for four years until July 2019. A native of Tokyo, she graduated from Keio University and then earned a master’s degree in the City and Regional Planning Program at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. Ms. Kato played a leading role in the development of the nomination and the process of World Heritage inscription of the Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution, which has 23 component parts including Hashima Island in Nagasaki.