Travel Tsukiji relocation postponed

Good news for tourists and those residents (like me) who haven't visited Tsukiji fish market yet:


Photo: Reuters / Japan Times

Smelling something fishy, Koike puts Tsukiji move on ice

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike on Wednesday suspended the relocation of Tokyo's famed Tsukiji fish market, saying she may order a root-and-branch review of the move.

The famously messy but colorful market was due to close a few weeks from now and reopen in spanking new surroundings at a custom-built facility in Toyosu in Koto Ward on Nov. 7.

At a news conference, Koike said three worries forced her into the decision: noxious chemicals in the ground at the new site, ballooning construction costs and a general failure to keep the city's residents in the loop.

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Tsukiji fish market relocation facing delay by new Gov. Yuriko Koike

Many fish merchants in Tsukiji, in particular tuna wholesale businesses, have opposed the move on the back of concerns about soil pollution at the Toyosu site and shortcomings in the planned alternative facilities.

Other merchants have called for a postponement because the relocation is to take place right before their busiest and most profitable season.

"Postponement is good. I have seen problems with the relocation in November. November and December is one of the busiest seasons for us," Tai Yamaguchi, a worker at Tsukiji-based fish dealer Hitoku Shoten, told The Japan Times on Tuesday.

"I'm also worried about pollution, and the facilities in Toyosu are so bad. We don't want to move to Toyosu until every problem is addressed."

The pollution problem emerged in 2001 when Tokyo Gas Co., which operated a gas plant at the site from 1956 to 1988, revealed that the soil contained high levels of toxic chemicals such as lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, cyanogen and benzene.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has claimed the new site won't pose any health problems either for Tsukiji workers or fish consumers. The metropolitan government has removed surface soil to 2 meters in depth at Toyosu and replaced it with new soil. It also plans to keep monitoring the groundwater for contaminants.

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Tourist dollars, I mean yen. They'll be there for a while, but I understand they will be moving as I just heard.

The new Governor is making waves and there seems to be more politics involved than a real concern. Unfortunately, the delay is costing Tokyo residents a lot of money and it is not likely they would scrap a 580,000,000,000 yen building (that was the price tag I saw recently on the local news).
The move will take place, maybe delayed a year.

PatrickNZ said:

The new Governor is making waves and there seems to be more politics involved than a real concern.

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I don't doubt that politics play a large role, but there are real concerns involved. I haven't paid a lot of attention to it, just catching a little bit here and there on panel discussion shows on television, but I did see several legitimate concerns raised.

For one, the ramps connecting the different levels are too steep for the vehicles used to transport goods inside the market. For another, the building they are being put into wasn't constructed to specifications to handle the kind of loads they'll be putting on the floors. The building was built with a designed rating of 700kg per square meter, while what would be expected in a facility that will see that type of use is two or three tons per square meter. Reportedly, falling through to the floor below isn't really a concern but they've going to tear the hell out of the floors in short order just from normal usage. Also, vendors complain that the extra inefficiency of having to work across multiple floors and moving products just within the market are going to be about 70% higher than what they are at a single-level facility like Tsukiji.

The only "waves" I can see her making is that for the first time I have ever seen in my many years in the Japanese transportation industry, somebody in a position of authority sought out and listened to the voices of the people who would actually be using a proposed facility. The normal way of doing things is to design and build stuff that looks good on paper but which the average idjit who is going to be stuck using it for decades to come could point out a half-dozen flaws in without even trying hard.

I think it far more likely that politics being the source of everything being assed up took place before she took office. My bet would be pressure from well-connected people who stand to make a bundle on extending the expressway across where Tsukiji currently sits. People talk like it will be the end of the world if they don't finish it in time for the Olympics and say they have to start NOW or they can't possibly do it. You want to know where politics comes in on most things here, follow the construction contracts.

I was watching a program that said 1) there were toxins in the ground, and because of this they had to 2) cover the ground with two meters of soil, but recent inspections show that, 3) the soil wasn't added as planned, and as a result there is 4) a vacant space underneath the structure that has standing water in it and the worry is that 5) the water will be contaminated by the toxins that were originally found to be in the soil.

Then, the next day, I heard one of the construction engineers say that the void under the building was part of the design, and is not an issue...

So many accusations going back and forth, I couldn't keep up with it.

And today they are saying the bidding process for the various construction projects at the new fish market was rigged. Most of the big jobs had only one construction consortium bidding for the work, and so there was a lack of true competition for the construction works.

Majestic said:

And today they are saying the bidding process for the various construction projects at the new fish market was rigged. Most of the big jobs had only one construction consortium bidding for the work, and so there was a lack of true competition for the construction works.

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Gee....what a surprise.

Yikes what a mess! Just throwing dirt on ground that's been found to contain toxins is in itself a disturbing approach. Back home there'd be a mountain of environmental studies needed just to get the building approved...