Traders march in opposition to Tokyo governor’s plan to relocate wholesale market to severely contaminated area

   In opposition to a Tokyo Metropolitan Government plan, Governor Ishihara Shintaro’s brainchild, to relocate the Tsukiji wholesale market to a contaminated area, about 1,500 traders and consumers on October 3 marched in demonstration in downtown Tokyo.

   Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Kasai Akira and JCP Metropolitan Assembly members took part.

   In the area where a Tokyo Gas factory previously stood, poisonous substances such as cyanide, arsenide, and hexavalent chromium at levels far higher than the environmental standards have been discovered.

   Traders and consumers as well as the JCP Metropolitan Assembly members have forced Ishihara to set up a panel of experts to conduct research into the extent of contamination.

   The representatives of the march organizers later in the day made a representation to the Environment and Agriculture ministries requesting them to instruct the metropolitan government and Tokyo Gas to conduct a detailed research into the site.                                                             - Akahata, October 4, 2007