Abe visits Tomioka Silk Mill

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday visited the Tomioka Silk Mill for the first time since it was designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO last month.

Abe spoke with staff and congratulated them on their efforts to restore the building, TBS reported. A staff member showed Abe how to reel silk on an old machine as it was done in the 19th century.

Abe expressed hope that the UNESCO listing will boost tourism to the area and help rejuvenate the local economy, TBS reported.

Built by the Japanese government in 1872 with machinery imported from France, the Tomioka Silk Mill consists of four sites that attest to the different stages in the production of raw silk: production of cocoons in an experimental farm; a cold storage facility for silkworm eggs; reeling of cocoons and spinning of raw silk in a mill; and a school for the dissemination of sericulture knowledge.

UNESCO said the mill illustrates Japan’s desire to rapidly adopt the best mass production techniques, and became a decisive element in the renewal of sericulture and the Japanese silk industry in the last quarter of the 19th century. It marked Japan’s entry into the modern, industrialized era, and propelled it to become the world’s leading exporter of raw silk, notably to France and Italy.

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