Opponents of a controversial Tokyo park redevelopment file a petition urging government to step in
A growing movement opposing a highly controversial redevelopment of a historic Tokyo park has submitted a fresh petition in its campaign to get the national government to intervene and revise the plan to save more trees
TOKYO — A growing movement opposing a highly controversial redevelopment of a historic Tokyo park submitted a fresh petition Monday, stepping up a campaign to get the national government to intervene and revise the plan to save more trees and avoid overdevelopment of the metropolitan area.
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.
The opposition is growing because people love the park for different reasons, and many are “horrified” imagining it becoming a huge commercial complex with skyscrapers when many others are already in Tokyo,
Read more on abcnews.go.com
