Anna Fifield in Tokyo
The fiasco surrounding Tokyo’s new fish market highlights several issues facing Japan.
Ah, Japan. Just the mention of the country evokes bullet trains, sushi and … cyanide? Five years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster and widespread fears about radiation leaking into the sea, Japan is grappling with another contamination threat.
A fish market was meant to open next month in a glitzy new complex on Tokyo Bay, replacing the ramshackle old Tsukiji, the world’s biggest and busiest fish market.
A compulsory stop on every tourist’s Tokyo itinerary, Tsukiji is where you can soak up the culture, survive a near-death experience with one of the little trucks that boomerang around the market and eat a pile of fresh sushi – all before 7am.
But the 80-year-old market was set to be torn down to make way for a new highway linking sites for the Olympics that Tokyo will host in 2020. To replace it, a sterile – in both good and bad senses of the word – glass and steel complex had been built just around the bay.
But the relocation plan has now been put on ice after it emerged that the site, previously home to a huge plant that turned coal into gas, had not been properly decontaminated.
The soil was supposed to be cleaned of the toxic chemicals, such as benzene and cyanogen, that were used during the gasification process. Then 4.5m of fresh soil was to be placed on top of it. It turns out there was hollow space under five key buildings – and groundwater was coming up into it.
Tests have shown that the chemical levels in the water are above the limits for drinking water, although below the levels considered dangerous if it’s not being used for drinking or washing. Still, the damage has been done. The entire market move is in doubt.
It also has unfortunate echoes of the Fukushima meltdown, when the Government was accused of a cover-up.
The whole debacle highlights several issues plaguing Japan. One is a persistent tendency by the old – yes, male – guard to think they’re above accountability. It’s no coincidence that the construction shortcuts were revealed by Yuriko Koike, who was elected Tokyo’s first female governor in a landslide victory in August, even though the political establishment was campaigning hard against her.
A former environment minister, Koike has called to task Shintaro Ishihara, who was governor when the plans were announced (and who previously warned Tokyo voters against electing “a woman who wears too much make-up”). Ishihara has refused to be questioned and, funnily enough, no one else is coming forward to take responsibility.
It also has unfortunate echoes of the Fukushima meltdown, when the Government and nuclearplant operator Tepco were accused of covering up the gravity of the disaster. Although the fish-market fiasco is on a much smaller scale, Japanese people are understandably concerned about their food safety and whether they can trust the authorities to put their safety first.
Another aspect of this debacle: Japanese are not eating as much fish as they used to. Fish consumption has fallen steadily in recent years – and the new market is simply much bigger than is necessary.
Fish consumption hit a 50-year-low last year. The reason? Partly it’s because there are more women working, which means there’s less time for them to prepare fish, and partly because Japan’s ever-growing population of elderly have difficulty handling fish (bones are common here). And meat is often cheaper.
Consumption has dropped so markedly that the Japan Fisheries Association has set up a fish-eating promotional division, even going into schools to encourage kids to eat more fish and show them how to cook it.
The new questions over the move have reignited questions about whether Tokyo needed to spend $6 billion on an unnecessarily large market that looks, critics say, like a public library. Is this going to be another white elephant, just as Olympic stadiums so often turn out to be?
Benzene or no benzene, the market-move situation has left a bitter aftertaste. Pass the tofu, please.
A former governor warned voters against electing “a woman who wears too much make-up”.