- 4 Jan 2023
- 207
- 77
This is the sort of thing where bodily protest can work. I salute you for taking action.
I attended! There were 230 of us making a human circle around the construction site. That showed 'em!
I attended! There were 230 of us making a human circle around the construction site. That showed 'em!
A little but I didn't see any of the big organisations. Hardly surprising with the Gomiuri and other media companies with their fingers in the pie.I applaud you, too! Was there any media presence?
Thanks. We may not be too keen on discussing some topics unrelated to Japan on this forum, but it doesn't mean that we don't care.This is the sort of thing where bodily protest can work. I salute you for taking action.
The developers will hold a meeting this summer with local residents to try to win their understanding for the project, under which more than 700 trees taller than 3 meters will be felled. Although 837 trees will be newly planted, concerns have risen that the project will not only cause environmental damage but will also ruin the look and atmosphere of the leafy area in central Tokyo. The project includes rebuilding Meiji Jingu Stadium and Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, as well as erecting two skyscrapers. The redevelopment started in March and is scheduled to conclude in 2036. According to sources involved in the project, developers on June 27 began demolishing a steel tower at Jingu Second Stadium, which is next to Meiji Jingu Stadium. The sources said the developers plan to cut down 30 trees more than 3 meters tall near Jingu Second Stadium in August.
As the Jingu Gaien redevelopment project garners more attention, people wonder what the project will look like. However, the perspective drawings published by the developers don't give a complete view of the project, as they have been selectively drawn from angles that minimise the appearance of the large buildings that will be constructed. To give everyone a complete understanding of the impact of the development and the scale of the planned facilities, we asked a national architectural design firm in the U.S., Berman Design, to prepare realistic before and after development models. Berman Design has expertise in adaptive reuse and hospitality. Berman Design entered into computer programs the information from Google Earth for the existing structures and information for the planned new structures given in the developer's plans published on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's website. The computer program produces an accurate 3D model, which can be shown from various angles and viewpoints. We will release a video based on this model on Monday, July 17th, at 11:45 am Tokyo time. This video will show Jingu Gaien in its current state juxtaposed with the planned development from various perspectives. The "before" and "after" for multiple locations within Jingu Gaien will be shown at the same angles, directly comparing before and after the development. We believe this video will give the public a clearer idea of the scale and impact of this development. We will also be doing a hashtag demo on Twitter with this hashtag: ＃神宮外苑まちづくり不都合な実像 Please tweet using it!
Kuwata said that he was not really following the news about the redevelopment project until Sakamoto's passing in March. "(After learning about Sakamoto's campaign against the project), I did some research about it myself and realized that something important was being lost," said Kuwata. "That's how the song's lyrics came to be." The straightforward protest song includes lines such as, "Someone was lamenting the disappearance of a beautiful forest," "Is a lovely oasis turning into an asphalt jungle?" "Are we allowed to block the sky with a future city?" The song concludes with the line, "Let's relay his will, I love this forest." A month before his death, Sakamoto sent a letter to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, urging her to halt and reassess the project.
About 1,500 trees were chopped down in the same area to build the $1.4 billion stadium for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Hosting the Games allowed the city to change zoning laws, permitting developers to further encroach on the park area.
Developers have argued the baseball stadium and rugby venue cannot be renovated and must be razed.
The new petition submitted Monday by Rochelle Kopp, a "save Jingu Gaien" movement leader, urges the Education Ministry to instruct its affiliate Japan Sports Council to rethink the redevelopment plan and renovate a rugby stadium instead of switching places with a baseball stadium by razing them both and "obliterating" a forest. The petition also urges the ministry, in charge of cultural heritage, to designate the famous avenue of nearly 150 gingko trees in the area as a scenic cultural property for protection, Kopp said. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike in February approved the plan, giving a green light to developers to build a pair of skyscrapers and a lower tower as part of the redevelopment. Kopp, a longtime Tokyo resident who operates a management consulting company, said the petition has been signed by nearly a quarter-million people. Not only neighborhood residents and environmental activists, but academics, artists and prominent people like Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami have expressed opposition to the plan.
"It's really disappointing that the metropolitan government is not responding seriously to the alert from the international body," said Ikuko Tanoue, who heads the group. "People are raising their voices in opposition, so assembly members have to work together against the project," Tanoue added. Campaigners say that the plans to replace more than 700 trees with new ones and build two skyscrapers in the area will damage the environment and landscape. The assembly members will scrutinize counter arguments presented by Mitsui Fudosan Co. and other developers against the ICOMOS alert. They will also hold discussions with developers and landowners if necessary.
As has been widely reported, the Tokyo government is planning to demolish Jingu as part of a large-scale redevelopment of the Meiji Jingu Gaien Park complex. The project will also bulldoze a much-loved rugby stadium, and wipe out iconic plant- and wildlife. In their place, the government's project will reward us all with ever-important "commercial space" and multiple high-rise buildings for swanky office space and high-end apartments. A new stadium will be constructed to house the Swallows, as well. But a new stadium will never replace what Jingu means to the Swallows' faithful. The ballpark is the centrepiece of fan life, a bridge to the past and a symbol of the team itself. Losing it would be a terrific blow to the team's culture and community. To this Swallows fan — and countless others — Jingu needs to be saved.
Jingu Stadium remains perfectly serviceable. Replacing it is simply an act of callous, bottom-line business and maybe vanity.[...] But the heart knows things, too, in its purest form: fandom is a matter of the heart. Koshien Stadium (Jingu's only elder) was fully renovated in 2010 and remains the beloved centrepiece of the Hanshin Tiger fandom. Many of Jingu's shortcomings could be solved similarly. The rest? We can live with them, as we have for decades. It's a small price to pay to retain our history and identity. A few years ago, several tall buildings were constructed directly next to Jingu. Horribly, they cast wide shadows over the fans on the first-base side and blocked the summer sunsets that used to make the stadium glow each evening. If Jingu Stadium gets replaced, the rest of its fans will be left in the dark as well.
ICOMOS Japan held a news conference at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Buildings on Tuesday. It asked for a response, saying the original deadline of October 10 had been missed. ICOMOS says it is unusual for it to make a second request after issuing a heritage alert. The panel is asking Tokyo to redo its environmental assessment that led to the endorsement of the project. ICOMOS Japan Director Ishikawa Mikiko described the lack of a formal response as extremely regrettable and a serious situation.
木殺 = to kill off a number of trees黙殺 Mokusatsu. To kill off the inquiry by ignoring it.
The letter said Koike and her government "have made no effort to provide official answers to dozens of public questions" and policy decisions. It asked for an independent environmental assessment and said some of the ginkgo trees "are in a state of obvious decline" that could be exacerbated by construction. "What she (Koike) is doing with this case is the simple destruction of nature when we need more trees," Kohei Saito, a political economist at Tokyo University, told The Associated Press. "We should have an open public discussion. This is not something that only politicians and private companies should decide."