Tokyos New Leader Steps Into Tourism Fray

By Mitsuru Obe

And Takashi Mochizuki

TOKYO-Tokyos newly elected governor said Tuesday she plans to postpone the relocation of the citys historic fish market at Tsukiji, keeping alive for now one of Japans most popular tourist destinations.

Gov. Yuriko KoikCs plan, disclosed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, is a risky gambit coming just two months before the 81-year-old fish market was set to move to a new site on which more than $5 billion was spent. Ms. Koike, who swept past the candidate backed by Japans ruling coalition to become Tokyos first female governor, cited pollution concerns and said officials havent paid enough attention to preserv-ing the culture of the current site.

"I really feel deeply that people have no delicacy when they barbarously destroy these treasures that everyone values," she said.

While advocates of the move say Tsukiji needs to be demolished quickly so a highway can be built for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, "it is gut-wrenching to see such a historic site as Tsukijiget knocked down even for the sake of the Olympics," Ms. Koike said. She suggested the move could go ahead next year. after a study of environmental concerns is completed.

Ms. Koike was elected on July 31 and has taken a populist tone after the previous two governors were forced to resign over money issues. Already well-known from her long career in Parliament, which included a stint as defense minister, the former newscaster has been winning more television airtime even than Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with theatrical moves to take on politicians she depicts as standing in the way of change.

But her stance on the fish market is likely to rouse criticism that she is ignoring the needs of business.

The Tsukiji market is both a place of commerce-it handled more than $4 billion in fish and produce in 2014-and a tourist destination where visitors flock to watch giant tuna being auctioned at five in the morning.

Merchants argue that the Tsukiji market has grown too small and outdated. They issued a statement Tuesday calling for the relocation to proceed as scheduled to the newsite in Toyosu, a little more than a mile from Tsukiji. The new location is nearly twice as large and features state-of-the-art refrigeration.

"The relocation plan was made after decades of discussion," said Shusuke Yoshinaga, a spokesman for the Tokyo fish market wholesalers association.

From 1956 to 1976, Tokyo Gas Co. operated a plant to manufacture household gas out of coal at the site of the planned new fish market. The plant stored coal in the site and produced harmful chemicals such as benzene as waste.

The Tokyo government discovered heavy soil contamina-tion in 2008. It has since spent more than $500 million to clean up the site, removing two meters of topsoil. Two years of monitoring are set to be completed Nov. 18.

Ms. Koike said she believed the site was clean enough for the fish market but said it was "odd" to open it before the monitoring results come in and get analyzed, a process expected to last until February. "When it comes to food, it has always been my position that safety for consumers and workers must come first," she said.

The Tsukiji market had been scheduled to close on Nov. 2, with the new marketopening on Nov. 7.

Anticipation of the Tsukiji markets demise has made the already-popular destination even more packed with tourists. The market permits up to 120 people a day to view the ; auctions at 5 a.m.

A Wall Street Journal re-i porter visiting Tokyo on vaca-I tion in August said he arrived | at the Tsukiji market at 4 ajn., j only to find it full of disap- pointed visitors. A guard said l visitors needed to arrive by 2 j a.m. to ensure themselves of a ! place at the auctions. Visitors who come late can still visit parts of the market and eat at sushi restaurants that surround it, some of which have hourslong waits of their own. Assuming the fish-market move eventually goes ahead, Ms. Koike said she wanted to look for ways to transmit the Tsukiji atmosphere that tourists enjoy to the new site, while redeveloping Tsukiji for other uses in a way that preserves its old-Tokyo culture. "A delay is understandable as a necessary step to clear" all the concerns, said Shun Otokita, a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. "1 want the governor to present a new road map for the relocation schedule and make a commitment to it."