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A rally to appeal saving the Tsukiji market at Tsukiji

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A rally to appeal saving the Tsukiji market at Tsukiji

 

Date: Saturday, August 27

Time: from 10:00 to 12:00

Location: In front of the Namiyoke Shuraine in Tsukiji

Map:http://goo.gl/x1wFSd

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Hello, everybody who loves Japanese food & Japanese culture!

 

Do you know that the Tsukiji Fish Market is facing the crisis of the relocation?

 

The Tokyo Metropolitan government is going to relocate the central food market from Tsukiji to Toyosu on November 7.

The land of Toyosu was used as a factory of the gas company for many years. So it is polluted by chemical substances, such as benzene, lead, arsenic, hexavalent chrome, mercury very much.

It may cause a cancer.

 

The facility of the Tsukiji Market was built on 1935.

It is so old that I understand there is a need for rebuild.

But it is possible to build the new facility on the grounds of the Tsukiji Market while using the old facility.

So, I don’t think there is a need for relocation.

 

As I mentioned above, the land of Toyosu was polluted by chemical substances, so it was not used for long years.
However, when the Japan Olympic committee invited the Olympic gemes in 2008 to Tokyo, a story to redevelop a coastal line area, including Ginza, Toyosu and Shibaura happened and a plan to transfer Tsukiji market to Toyosu was made.
The officials from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government occupied the key members of the Tokyo Olympic Games Bid Committee at that time.

The soil investigation was carried out before deciding the move to Toyosu, but it was not performed properly.

I think that the Tokyo Metropolitan government definitely knows that Toyosu is not suitable for the food market.

Not only the pollution of the land of Toyosu, but also many other problems are pointed out about the relocation of the Tsukiji Market to Toyosu.

The land of Toyosu constantly faces the ground liquefaction due to earthquakes, because it is the reclaimed land.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government indeed admitted the danger of the ground liquefaction and took simple measures. But they didn't anticipate any probability that contaminated water would spew out from the ground and would pollute the foodstuffs in the fish market directly or indirectly.

Soon after the East Japan great earthquake disaster happened on 11th in March, 2011, the land of Toyosu caused liquefaction and the contaminated water spewed actually.

After that, the Tokyo Metropolitan government announced that they would take the new measures to solidify the land. However, some architectural experts said it would be insufficient to solidify the land.

 

And the problems in the design of the facility of the Toyosu market are also pointed out.
The space for the shop of the intermediate wholesalers is very narrow. The frontage of  the entrance of the store is only 1.5 meters.

One intermediate wholesaler says that it is too narrow to use a long kitchen knife to cut the tuna.

Also the lord limit of the floor is too low, and it is said that a floor may fall out.

One intermediate wholesaler says that the load limit of the floor is so low that the water tank to put the live fish can not be placed in the same way as up to now.

Because the design of the facility of the Toyosu new market doesn't consider the present conditions of the Tsukiji market, the Toyosu market cannot substitute the function of the Tsukiji market.

 

And the access to Toyosu is worse than Tsukiji.

It means that it becomes difficult for tourists to come to the market, and it also means cost and time for the distribution are needed more than now.

 

In addition to those physical problems of the Toyosu new market, there is another big problem in this relocation plan to Toyosu.

According to the plan of the Tokyo Metropolitan government, while the wholesalers and large brokers will be relocated to Toyosu, many small brokers as well as retail shops and restaurants are to remain in Tsukiji. Many of the stakeholders fear that such a situation will severely damage their businesses.

To remove the market from the Tsukiji area means destroying the whole area of Tsukiji including its legacy and cultural heritages.

 

For many problems as above, many of the intermediate wholesalers of Tsukiji have decided to discontinue its business when the Tsukiji market moves to Toyosu.

The system of the intermediate distribution is a Japanese peculiar system and it takes a role of the maintaining of the quality and the deciding the proper price in Japan.

Therefore, it means the death of the distribution system of Japan.

 

A problem of the removal of the Tsukiji market is not only the crisis of the food safety for us, but it is also the crisis of destroying the Japanese culture and the Japanese tradition. And it is also the crisis of destroying the life of many stakeholders and other Japanese.

The plan of the relocation of the Tsukiji market has been continuously led by the Tokyo Metropolitan government for more than 10 years.

However, meanwhile, the public hearing session has been never held.

I think to open the public hearing session is inconvenient for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

I think the reason why the Tokyo Metropolitan government need the relocation of the Tsukiji market is only money.

The relocation of the Tsukiji Market is only for the profit for 1% of the people and it is not for the benefit for the most of the stakeholders of the Tsukiji Market.

Do you think there is a need for the relocation of the Tsukiji Market to the polluted land of Toyosu?

 

Tokyo Governor election was held on July 31 this year, and Governor Yuriko Koike was newly elected.

She visited Tsukiji during her election campaign and spoke that she would stop once and reconsider the plan of the relocation of the Tsukiji market.

Then, after being elected as a governor, she invited the market participants to hear from them and she went to visit the Tsukiji market and Toyosu.

At a press conference after the visit, she said that she would show some conclusions about the relocation of the Tsukiji market to Toyosu after she came back from the Rio Olympics.

Despite the relocation of the Tsukiji market is very important for our life, most of the Japanese don’t know about it.

We will hold a rally at Tsukiji on August 27 in order to promote the knowledge of the people about the Tsukiji problem and to appeal to save the Tsukiji Market. For more detailed information about the rally, please check again at the top of this post.

Everybody loving Tsukiji, please be interested in the problem of the Tsukiji by all means, and please raise your voice to save the Tsukiji Market with us.



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If you have a time, please check the following videos about Tsukiji.

①The trailer of the documentary film "TSUKIJI WONDERLAND"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7poRRI2zAM

②The recorded video of the action to promote the knowledge about the Tsukiji relocation problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu8MoI9Zz1M&feature=youtu.be