The Mission and Roles in Society of a Museum for the Future

I sincerely congratulate the National Museum of China today on its 100th anniversary.
I am Zeniya Masami, the Executive Director of the Tokyo National Museum in Japan.
This year also marks the 140th anniversary of the Tokyo National Museum. As the executive director of a museum that has a long history as well, it gives me great pleasure to be able to speak to you on this occasion today.
Last year, I attended a conference of ANMA (the Asian National Museum Association) held at the National Museum of China. At that conference, I received the strong impression that in Asian countries, each museum has developed in a way that closely reflects the conditions and history of its own country. Such an impression seemed to suggest that, above all, the strength of a country's culture is part of that country's power. Similar to other Asian countries, Japan is currently taking various steps to further increase the function of museums. Therefore today, I would like to speak about the mission and roles in society of the Tokyo National Museum, together with two other essential activities of the museum.

1. The Mission and Roles in Society of a Museum for the Future

The Tokyo National Museum began 140 years ago, when the newly-established Meiji government meticulously collected many examples of Japanese culture and civilization from across the country. Later, in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the main building, or Honkan, of the museum was seriously damaged. The present Honkan building was rebuilt in its place with donations by people from across Japan. Including the Honkan, there are six museum buildings at the Tokyo National Museum that are specially protected as cultural properties of Japan.
There are several significant issues when carrying out museum activities in these historical, or old, facilities. I think that these issues are possibly shared by other museums in Europe and America.
In addition to the need to deal with the deterioration of air-conditioning equipment and to provide barrier-free access, the need to allow visitors to view artworks in comfortable surroundings has increased. In response to these needs, the Tokyo National Museum is already implementing various measures to improve facilities. In the future as well, for example, we would like to create large, underground exhibition and storage spaces. There are big hurdles standing in the way of this, but we hope to overcome them by the museum's 150th anniversary in ten years time.
However, solving various problems at the Tokyo National Museum is not as simple as just improving the facilities. While continuing to improve the use of the museum buildings, we have to perform our work with great awareness of the following two roles of the museum.

➀. Conveying Culture to Future Generations

Currently at the Tokyo National Museum, various initiatives are being carried out to increase the number of young people visiting the museum. These initiatives include free entry to the regular exhibitions for school students up to and including high school, school programs, regular guided tours by volunteers, and gallery talks by curators. In addition, starting this year we have either implemented or scheduled many activities created with younger visitors in mind, such as the introduction of a museum guide for smartphones, as well as events to coincide with the New Year, the cherry blossom viewing season, and the picnic season in autumn.
We are, however, aware that museums that focus mainly on antiquities such as the Tokyo National Museum still do not possess enough appeal for the younger generation. How to attract younger visitors and deepen their understanding of Japanese culture and history is one of the large issues currently facing us.

➁. Conveying Culture to the World

From April 9 of this year, the Tokyo National Museum began participating in the Google Art Project. Through this service, Internet users can experience the Tokyo National Museum virtually, which will hopefully create one of the platforms for publicizing the museum to the world. At present, only 20 percent of visitors to the museum's regular exhibitions are from foreign countries. I look forward to seeing if the Google Art Project has positive effects on this percentage.
In the future, we also hope to create interactive sections within the museum that enable visitors to actually experience Japanese culture in a casual setting. We consider that how to convey one's own culture to the world is an extremely important issue for museum policy.

2. Essential Activities of the Museum: 1. Preservation and Conservation

I would like to mention two activities that are essential for us to convey, and to develop awareness of, culture and cultural properties for future generations. The first is preservation and conservation. Preservation and conservation activities perform a crucial role for the Tokyo National Museum, in enabling us to showcase the country Japan through our exhibitions. It is therefore very important for us to express our gratitude to our predecessors, who carefully protected and handed on cultural properties up to the present day. To show this gratitude through our own actions, we must continue to pass on these irreplaceable cultural properties to future generations. To this end, it is important to maintain adequate storage environments, carry out emergency restorations when required, and to perform full restorations in order that cultural properties survive far into the future. At the Tokyo National Museum, we make these concepts an integral part of our activities.
We hope in many ways to continue highlighting the fact that the museum's exhibitions are based on this type of fundamental work. At the Tokyo National Museum, we display the results of our preservation and conservation activities within the regular exhibitions. In this way, we interest people in the preservation and conservation of cultural properties.

3. Essential Activities of the Museum: 2. Exchange and Cooperation with Other Museums

The other essential activity for the future is to always maintain a system of exchange and cooperation with other museums concerning cultural properties and culture.
As Japan's prominent museum, the Tokyo National Museum supports the activities of other museums, which include other national museums, as well as regional and private museums. These activities include the exhibition of loaned cultural properties. We intend to continue fulfilling this role within Japan as Japan's prominent museum.
At an international level, activities of exchange and cooperation with museums outside of Japan can potentially be influenced by political factors. However, when considering the importance and influence of cultural properties, I strongly feel the necessity for everybody connected to museums here today to share a broader perspective, one which looks beyond these factors.
By carrying out exchange and cooperation through exhibition, preservation and conservation activities, there are times when new discoveries are made, or technology is exchanged. I think that, no matter the situation, we who work at museums must continue to nurture respect for each other through cultural properties and culture.

In closing this speech, I once again congratulate the National Museum of China on its 100th anniversary, and also express my gratitude for having this opportunity to speak here today. Thank you.