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00:04Japan.
00:05Michael, welcome to Japan, a railway paradise.
00:08Its huge population spread over Long Islands lives by its railways.
00:13I feel like I'm driving.
00:14My new adventure takes me through the land that launched the high-speed train.
00:19I love Shinkansen.
00:21Where millions of journeys are made each day through some of the most bustling stations on earth.
00:27Busy city.
00:28I'll ride Japan's vast railway network to uncover a land of bold innovation.
00:35Haven't quite got the hang of it yet.
00:37A place of enduring traditions, volatile geology and remarkable people.
00:44Kanpai.
00:45Join me on an excursion like no other.
00:48I'm too excited to sit down.
01:04My excursion continues on Kyushu, the most southerly and westerly of Japan's main islands.
01:12Japan is one of the world's greatest manufacturing economies.
01:16And yet it missed out entirely on the industrial revolution that transformed the west between the mid-18th and mid
01:24-19th centuries.
01:26I will travel on Kyushu Island's newest Shinkansen railway to the port of Nagasaki.
01:33One of two cities destroyed by an atom bomb.
01:37To hear how a Scottish trader, one of the foreigners excluded by Japan, played an important role in its industrialization
01:45and political change.
01:48Visiting Japan opens my European eyes to a distant country with a wholly different culture and view of life.
01:56In planning my journey across Kyushu Island, I had a choice of over 20 rail lines and more than 500
02:03stations.
02:04Having begun in Kagoshima in the south, I'm traveling along the west of the island, whose history has been shaped
02:11by being closest to foreign influences.
02:14Later, I'll reach the largest island, Honshu, and arrive in Hiroshima.
02:28This morning, I begin with a nine-mile hop on a local commuter train.
02:37Safety depends on procedures that are rigorously followed.
02:41In Japan, a train driver acknowledges his every thought and action with a point of the finger.
02:49That emphasizes that he is consciously following procedure to the letter.
03:16from the station ataluikoo go, I made my way a few miles east to the agricultural city of Yame.
03:28In the mountainous southern Fukuoka region on the Yabe River,
03:32with a population of 38,000,
03:35it's famous across Japan for its production of tea,
03:39one of the nation's favourite drinks.
03:44In Britain, we invest tea with extraordinary recuperative properties.
03:50After any slight misfortune, a friend will recommend that we have a nice kappa to make us feel better.
03:57But it's served entirely without ceremony.
04:00In Japan, tea occupies entirely a different position.
04:05It has evolved over centuries from being the exclusive preserve of the privileged.
04:11It is held in respect and its serving is accompanied by complex ritual.
04:18I approach the subject with due deference.
04:25I'm in the tea capital of Kyushu.
04:28There are about 15,000 growers in the Yame area.
04:33This tea factory, run by the Oishi family, opened in 1940.
04:38Pierrick Grosselin, who's French, is the sales director.
04:43Hello, Pierrick. I'm Michael.
04:45Oh, hello.
04:46What a pleasure to see you.
04:47Welcome in Yame.
04:48So, you're picking the leaves today?
04:50Yes, you're right at the time of the new harvest.
04:53Would you mind helping a little bit, removing this?
04:55What, roll this pack?
04:57Rolling it away, slowly, delicately.
05:00Mm-hmm.
05:02You have been shedding them for two weeks, making the leaves greener, softer, of a superior quality.
05:09The leaves under here look absolutely superb.
05:13Which leaves make the best tea?
05:16It would be just the very top bud and the two following leaves, taken like this, making the best tea
05:24of whole kind.
05:25We associate tea with both China and Japan. When did it arrive in Japan?
05:30The very first seed arrived like 800 years ago, through the island of Kyushu, through the port of Hirado,
05:38which is a little bit north of Nagasaki, and then after, travelled up to the emperor in Kyoto.
05:43Did the Japanese make tea in the same way as the Chinese?
05:47It would be slightly different, since instead of, like, firing it, we are steaming it, keeping the tea green,
05:55and that's why, like, a Japanese green tea is a famous worldwide.
05:58What happens at a tea ceremony?
06:01Usually this is a gathering of guests with a tea master.
06:05It's a combination of tradition and, like, spirituality in order to enjoy tea in a relaxing atmosphere.
06:13What is it about the climate here that makes it so good for tea growing?
06:18Making good tea is about having a good soil.
06:22We had, like, a very active volcano called Assosan, just nearby here, making the soil rich.
06:29In the mountain area of Fiamme, you have also, like, a natural mist, fog, covering every morning,
06:37making it a natural shading, making the tea leaves greener, softer, more delicious.
06:45I've heard of different sorts of green tea. For which one is Yame famous?
06:50The most renowned, the best green tea in all Japan.
06:56Traditional, authentic Yame Gyokulo, harvested by hand, which is a GI, geographical indication, registered.
07:04In the same list, then, for example, the beef from Kobe.
07:07Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that is a premium tea. That would be very expensive. How much would you pay
07:13for that?
07:14There could be price between, like, 400 and 500 pounds a kilo.
07:20Ooh, that is very, very special indeed. A good Bordeaux would be cheaper.
07:25A good Bordeaux or a bottle of champagne, too?
07:34The award-winning factory blends green tea from its own fields and from other local farms.
07:41Loose leaf and powdered varieties are processed, including sencha and matcha.
07:48Kjeri, we're surrounded by this magnificent aroma of green tea.
07:53We have a lot of machinery here. What goes on? What is the process?
07:59So, the main purpose of this factory will be about to refine the tea.
08:04Meaning, sorting the different types of tea and also drying it.
08:09Decreasing the level of moisture or increasing the level of umami savouriness.
08:15Umami. Umami. Interesting word.
08:17It's coming from Japan, but used all around the world now.
08:20It's pretty noisy in here, but what do we start with?
08:24The big blender.
08:25Right.
08:26Blending for 20 minutes.
08:28Uh-huh.
08:29Sorting the big leaves from the small leaves.
08:32Small leaves go on a different line.
08:36What happens there?
08:37So, here would be about colour sorting.
08:40You have the green leaves, but also the white stem.
08:44For this machine, using air pressure for removing the white stem from the green leaves.
08:51Can you use the stems?
08:52Definitely, yeah.
08:53It would be a different tea called Kukicha, the stem tea.
08:57After going to these two machines, which would be the dryers.
09:02Then moving to this one, which would be air sorting.
09:07Removing the very small leaves, small particles, mainly used in the tea bags sold in the supermarket, for example.
09:16So, you do every kind of tea here, really?
09:19From the best to the most basic?
09:21Exactly.
09:22Aha.
09:24Japan's green tea industry is worth over £3 billion, with around 70,000 tonnes consumed here each year.
09:33It's said to contain a host of health benefits, and sales across the world have increased dramatically over the last
09:40decade.
09:41In the factory's tea room, I'm invited to taste the company's matcha, Japanese for powdered tea,
09:47with the owner's son, executive director, Kenichi Oishi.
09:52Oishi-san.
09:53Hi.
09:54Hello, I'm Michael.
09:56What a pleasure.
09:59This is your family's business, isn't it?
10:02Yes.
10:02How many generations?
10:03Yeah.
10:04Fourth generations.
10:06You're the fourth generation.
10:09Keri prepares our tea, mixing the bright green matcha powder with boiling water.
10:15Using a traditional bamboo whisk, known as a chasen, to create a foam.
10:21Moving laterally, from the left to the right.
10:26And then, gathering from the side to the middle.
10:30And here it is.
10:31Yame matcha.
10:43That is a splendid tea.
10:45It's full of deliciousness and fragrance.
10:48Yeah.
10:49Wonderful tea.
10:50Thank you very much.
10:51Thank you very much.
11:04Around 35 miles west, at the hot springs resort of Takeo Onsen, I'm bound for the port city of Nagasaki,
11:13on Japan's super-fast Shinkansen bullet train.
11:18As a rail explorer in Japan, you can record your route by collecting ekki, or station stamps, each with a
11:27unique design.
11:28They were introduced in the 1930s to encourage travel, and you can build up a great souvenir.
11:44Kyushu Island is extraordinarily well served by Japanese railways.
11:49Here's a map of the network.
11:52Every sort of train.
11:53Shinkansen, diesel, electric, standard gauge, and narrow gauge.
11:58And the train spotter is well catered for.
12:01You can look out for all these different models.
12:04I just saw the luxurious tourist train, the 36 plus 3, and here is the Komome.
12:11It means seagull, and it's one of the newest variants of the Shinkansen.
12:26I'm on Kyushu's latest Shinkansen line, opened in 2022, and its trains travel at an impressive 260 kilometres per hour.
12:38The Komome trains are fresh and modern.
12:42There's much better signage than before.
12:44There's more legroom.
12:46We have these beautiful woods.
12:49People say there's no need for first class, because even in economy, you're getting the top experience.
13:04There's no need for first class, because there's no need for first class.
13:22How magnificent!
13:25This new station is a wonderful gateway to the Bay of Nagasaki, city of history and of legend.
13:35On Kyushu's west coast, Nagasaki lies on a deep, narrow harbour at the mouth of the Urukami River, surrounded by
13:44steep hills.
13:46During the Second World War, on August 9th 1945, it was devastated when the United States dropped an atomic bomb.
13:55Up to 70,000 people lost their lives, and around a third of its buildings were destroyed.
14:02Over the following decade, it was rebuilt, and today the thriving port city has over 400,000 residents.
14:15To appreciate the topography, I bought a cable car from just west of the city centre to rise more than
14:231,000 feet to the top of Mount Inasa.
14:33Nagasaki is, to me, surprisingly glamorous for a major port and an industrial hub.
14:40The same beautiful mountains rising steeply from the water's edge that protect the inlet make it a picture postcard.
15:00Portuguese merchants came here in the mid-16th century.
15:04They established it as a trading port in 1571, and the city grew around it.
15:13Because of the mountains soaring above the high-rise buildings, I find it just about possible to think what Nagasaki
15:20was like centuries ago,
15:22maybe when the Portuguese first arrived.
15:25You can see how attractive they would have found it.
15:28You can see how attractive they would have found it.
15:32Almost 300 years later, in 1859, Thomas Blake Glover, an enterprising young Scot from Aberdeen, disembarked here.
15:42Then, in his early 20s, he would become one of Japan's most famous foreigners.
15:48Across the bay, his former house is now a popular museum.
15:52I'll explore his remarkable story and the trading history of this city with author and historian Brian Burke Gaffney.
16:02Brian, I am thrilled to be in Nagasaki.
16:04I'm just stunned by its topography.
16:06Yes.
16:06It's the first time for me here, but it strikes me as one of the world's great ports.
16:10It really is one of the most beautiful and is deep in the middle, surrounded by mountains, and so protected
16:16on all sides.
16:17So, right from the Portuguese period, Nagasaki has been chosen as an ideal port of call by foreign ships.
16:24While I've been in Japan, I've learned that it was closed to the outside world for two and a half
16:28centuries,
16:28with a bit of an exception at Nagasaki.
16:31What was the exception?
16:32Well, the shogunate took a very harsh attitude towards Christianity,
16:36and the Portuguese were dismissed from Japan.
16:40But they wanted to continue the trade under their control,
16:43and so they allowed the Chinese and the Dutch, who were Protestant rather than Catholic,
16:48to continue a modicum of trade.
16:50For more than two centuries, Nagasaki was literally the only officially open port in Japan.
16:57When Japan eventually bowed to pressure from Western countries
17:01and opened up to foreign trade in the mid-19th century, Nagasaki flourished further.
17:08At 23, Thomas Glover set up his first business here.
17:11He went on to play a key role in the country's industrial revolution.
17:16In 1863, he built this villa on the city's Minami-Yamati hillside overlooking the harbour.
17:25Well, Thomas Glover certainly knew how to pick a view, didn't he?
17:28What a splendid house. What a great position.
17:30Lovely, isn't it? Yes.
17:30It's superb. What would have attracted this young, very young, Abedonian to come to Nagasaki?
17:37I think he saw in Nagasaki great opportunities,
17:40and also the relationships that he established here with Japanese samurai at the time
17:45convinced him that Nagasaki was the place to be.
17:48These young samurai went on to be the leaders of Japanese politics and Japanese industry.
17:54Now, how did he pull that off? How did he develop these relationships with the samurai?
17:57He spoke Japanese, and so it's obvious that he took interest towards Japanese culture,
18:04and maybe just his Scottish charm.
18:07He was more successful than many other of the British and American merchants who were coming to Nagasaki.
18:14What businesses did he get into?
18:17Thomas Glover started, like other merchants, importing fabrics from India and from China
18:22and exporting Japanese agricultural products, etc., but gradually he saw the potential for coal mining.
18:29So he developed the Takashima coal mine, which in fact you can almost see from his house here.
18:36Then he built a ship repair dock close to Nagasaki.
18:40He used engines and boilers to bring ships up on a slip dock.
18:45So this was really the beginning of the modern shipbuilding industry.
18:49And the list just goes on and on.
18:50Please tell me that he had a connection with the railways.
18:52He did have a connection with the railways.
18:54In 1865, Thomas Glover brought a miniature locomotive to Nagasaki
19:00and did a demonstration and ran it along the waterfront.
19:04And this would have been the first time for Japanese people to understand the huge possibilities of steam locomotion.
19:13In 1908, Glover was the first foreigner to be awarded Japan's highest civilian honour,
19:19the Order of the Rising Sun, for his contribution to the country's industrialisation.
19:25He died three years later, aged 73, and was buried here in Nagasaki.
19:32Quite close to where Thomas Glover had established a ship repair facility,
19:37Mitsubishi established an enormous shipbuilding yard.
19:40Glasgow had once been shipbuilder to the world.
19:44The title passed eventually to Japan, with a little help from an Abedonian.
19:54Amongst Thomas Glover's significant legacies was the Takashima coal mine,
20:00which intriguingly is accessed by boat.
20:02I'm travelling 11 miles south to the extraordinary island of Hashima in the East China Sea.
20:29Being on this boat enables me to appreciate the vastness of the inlet at Nagasaki.
20:35It's shipyards, it's shipyards, it's ship repair, it's industries, it's urban sprawl.
20:42A massive city facing the outside world.
20:49My trip promises a glimpse into the early days of this country's economic success.
20:56Japan had produced some coal for centuries, but its industrialisation required a high-grade product
21:03that could be extracted in vast quantities.
21:06And it was found under the seabed and could be accessed with some difficulty
21:11from the offshore islands of Takashima, where Glover invested,
21:17and Hachima, to which I'm bound now.
21:23The island, that covers just 16 acres, was abandoned in 1974, when its coal reserves ran out.
21:31It's been preserved as a part of Japan's industrial heritage,
21:36an intriguing site for visitors.
21:39My first impression of Hashima is that it's a rather forbidding place.
21:44Amongst all this natural beauty, the incongruous high-rise buildings
21:50suggesting that humanity was crammed together here
21:53to meet the needs of Japanese manufacturing.
22:03In 1890, Hashima was bought by the Japanese Mitsubishi Commercial Company.
22:10Founded as a shipping company, it soon diversified into mining
22:14to provide coal for its fleet of steamships and for steel production.
22:19Initially, Japanese miners settled on the island with their families.
22:24From 1910 to 1945, forced labour was brought from Korea, which was occupied by Japan.
22:33Hashima is one of a number of sites connected to Japan's industrialisation
22:37that has been granted by UNESCO World Heritage Status.
22:42This has caused controversy because the Republic of Korea is not satisfied
22:48with Japan's explanation of its use of enforced labour in horrendous conditions in the mine.
22:56The first half of the 20th century casts a very long shadow.
23:02The mine reached its peak during the post-war period.
23:05In the late 1950s, this isolated mining community had grown to over 5,000 people.
23:12Minoru Kinoshita was born on the island and now works as a guide.
23:16This is one of the most extraordinary places I've ever been.
23:19Describe to me what this was.
23:22This is a-
23:22This is a place called the Ha Shima TANCO, which is a central place of Ha Shima TANCO.
23:36Here, the TANCO team members are preparing to enter the building before entering the building.
23:46The elevator is 606m to the elevator.
23:52Having gone down 606m, you then go out under the seabed, is that right?
24:11What sort of coal is under there?
24:34A huge and valuable coal. What are the conditions like? Is it hot?
24:40Yes, the temperature is 35 degrees Celsius, and the temperature is 95 percent, so I've been working for a sauna
24:51for 8 hours.
24:57Across 84 years, this mine produced more than 16 million tonnes of coal from under the sea.
25:04Slag was used to reclaim land, making space for apartment blocks, a school, a hospital, and even a cinema.
25:13High sea walls were built to protect the island's coastline.
25:17Minoru lived with his parents and sister here until he was 12, and I'm surprised that he has fond memories
25:24of his childhood.
25:26What an astonishing place, what a huge ruin.
25:41Why were you born here? Why were you living here?
25:44My father was only in this island.
25:47There was only anæ˜ ç”»é¤¨ in theæ˜ ç”»é¤¨.
25:51There was anæ˜ ç”»é¤¨ in theæ˜ ç”»é¤¨.
25:55My mother and my mother were born.
25:58My mother was born in theæ˜ ç”»é¤¨.
26:00I was able to eat at theæ˜ ç”»é¤¨ in theæ˜ ç”»é¤¨.
26:03I was able to go to theç‚é‰±å ´.
26:05So I really hated it.
26:06I was able to eat at theæ˜ ç”»é¤¨.
26:14Your dad didn't like his job, but you seem quite happy about your childhood memories.
26:38You have been a wonderful guide.
26:59On this part of my journey, I've seen contrasts between the sparsely populated countryside,
27:06where tea grows in picturesque plantations, and the concentration of people and manpower
27:12are required to produce high-volume coal.
27:15It's striking that Japan, that industrialised so late, is still a manufacturing power in contrast to Britain.
27:25Japan brings precision to everything that it does, including the making of a cup of tea.
27:32And perhaps for that reason, it is still a fabricator to the world.
27:37Next time, with cobalt in it, will it always be blue?
27:41Yes.
27:43We have 300 kinds of blooms.
27:49Changing the entire country is tough.
27:53But as mayor, you can change a city.
27:59This onsen is delightful.
28:02You sense that you will emerge a new man.
28:35Transcription by CastingWords
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