Toyosu Fish Market Backroom Deal Document Surfaces

Above, the current Tsukiji Fish Market. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Another twist in the saga over the new fish market in Tokyo's Koto Ward has surfaced.

According to The Japan Times:

A newly revealed document has highlighted the possible existence of a backroom agreement in 2001 between the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Gas Co. on soil decontamination at the Toyosu new wholesale food market in Tokyo. 

The paper, which was submitted by Tokyo Gas to a meeting Saturday of a powerful Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly special investigation committee, may be part of documents showing backroom negotiations between the company and Takeo Hamauzu, then vice governor of Tokyo, on the gas supplier’s sale of the land to the city. 

The so-called Article 100 committee, set up last month, plans to question Hamauzu when he appears at the panel’s meeting on March 19 to testify over the matter.

The new facility was supposed to be operational last November, but problems concerning contaminated soil at the location cropped up and the opening has been indefinitely delayed. Because of this the current Tsukiji Fish Market remains open. So if visitors wish to see the historic fish market, now's the time to go while it's still open.

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