TOKYO — Miho Nakashima stood in a washing swimsuit in Tokyo on Sunday subsequent to a 100-year-old gingko tree, her physique painted head-to-toe in inexperienced leaves and brown branches.
Her message was clear, and he or she repeated it standing on the coronary heart of the Jingu Gaien park space, its sanctity threatened by a disputed real-estate improvement plan.
“I’m a tree,” she mentioned. “Don’t chop me down.”
A plan authorized earlier this yr by Gov. Yuriko Koike would let builders, led by Mitsui Fudosan, construct a pair of 200-meter (650-feet) skyscrapers in Jingu Gaien, mow down timber in considered one of Tokyo’s few inexperienced areas and raze and rebuild a historic rugby venue and an adjoining baseball stadium.
Takayuki Nakamura, amongst a number of hundred individuals who gathered on Sunday to protest, pressed his face into the bark of 1 tree and prayed. The space was put aside 100 years in the past to honor Japan’s Meiji Emperor.
“I want to appreciate the existence of these trees. Sometime I can feel some sounds inside,” he mentioned.
PHOTOS: 100-year-old ginkgo timber may get the axe below disputed plan for Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien park
The deliberate redevelopment would take greater than a decade to complete, and has attracted lawsuits with mounting opposition from conservationists, civic teams, native residents and sports followers.
Eighteen ginkgo timber behind the rugby stadium are prone to be minimize down.
The flashpoint has been timber, inexperienced house, and who controls a public space that has been encroached on through the years. Also at situation is the destiny of greater than 100 gingko timber that line an avenue within the space and supply a colourful cascade of falling leaves every autumn. Botanists say any building is certain to trigger injury.
Critics say the plan has been rammed via regardless of a botched environmental evaluation as real-estate builders take what was supposed as public land and switch it into a personal business enterprise.
Famous Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has opposed the plan. And composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto despatched an open letter to Koike deriding the plan simply days earlier than his demise on March 28.
The rugby stadium was used throughout the 1964 Olympics, and Babe Ruth performed in 1934 within the baseball stadium together with different American stars dealing with Japan’s greatest gamers.
The mission highlights the ties among the many essential actors: the governor, Mitsui Fudosan, and Meiji Jingu, a spiritual group that owns a lot of the land to be redeveloped.
“The redevelopment of the park is obviously a public issue,” Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University, advised The Associated Press earlier this yr. “At the identical time, they (politicians) can declare that it’s a non-public resolution of a spiritual group and the builders.
“But because Jingu Gaien is also a public park with sports facilities, politicians can – and do – meddle in the decisions. Which results in the cozy, probably collusive relationships among the insiders that are unaccountable to the public.”
About 1,500 timber have been chopped down in the identical space to construct the $1.4 billion stadium for the Tokyo Olympics. Hosting the Olympics additionally allowed the town to vary zoning legal guidelines, which can allow builders to additional encroach on the park space.
“This is like building skyscrapers in the middle of Central Park in New York,” Mikiko Ishikawa, an emeritus professor on the University of Tokyo, advised The Associated Press.
Developers have argued the 2 sports amenities can’t be renovated and have to be razed.
However, Koshien Stadium close to Kobe, inbuilt 1924, has been renovated during the last 15 years, a lot in the identical method that Fenway Park (1912) in Boston and Wrigley Field (1914) in Chicago are nonetheless viable for 2 of MLB’s most well-known groups.
Meiji Kinenkan, a historic reception corridor, dates from 1881. It’s nonetheless in broad use in Jingu Gaien, with no requires its demolition.
“The development companies are trying to cut down more trees and make a huge business area,” Nakashima mentioned as a leaf was painted on her cheek. “The park has a very long history and should be saved.”
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