Tokyo’s Tree-Raising Drama Shouldn’t Stymie Transformation

In a city that is regularly transforming, some locals are pressing back.

Plans to redevelop Jingu Gaien, a century-old park and also sporting activities facility in main Tokyo, have actually consulted with rigid resistance from some worried residents. In among his last acts prior to his fatality in March, the author Ryuichi Sakamoto contacted the guv opposing it. Haruki Murakami, Japan’s most renowned writer, has actually spoken up versus it, advising “once something is destroyed, it can never be restored.”The 1.31 square-kilometer (323 acre) location is house to the Yakult Swallows baseball group, the city’s rugby pitch and also some 2,000 trees, most significantly a 300-meter row of gingko trees that is a distinct Tokyo site. In a joint task in between Mitsui Fudosan Co., Itochu Corp., the Japan Sports Council and also the landowners Meiji Shrine, the task pictures tearing down and also …