June 9, 2013
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2013 June 5 - 11 [TOKYO]
Use of small portion of Tokyo beltway construction cost will provide more care facilities for children and elderly |
Areas affected include quiet residential neighborhoods with traditional retail shops surrounded by greenery.
Nishijima Masaki, an architect living in Mitaka City, said, “About 70,000 yen comes from every Tokyoite, from babies to the elderly. If you are a family of four, this amounts to 280,000 yen. What an outrageous extortion of taxpayer money!”
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT), the population of Japan will have decreased by 10% by the time the beltway construction is completed in 2030.
“The decrease in population will reduce road use. I wonder if the construction is actually necessary,” Nishijima cast doubt on the construction itself.
A groundbreaking ceremony took place in September last year in Setagaya Ward where the construction of a huge expressway junction is now underway. Having promoted the construction plan, some assemblypersons from the Liberal Democratic, Democratic, and Komei parties showed up for the groundbreaking ceremony.
The junction is 130,000sq.m. in size, corresponding to three times the size of the largest baseball stadium Tokyo Dome, and will destroy surrounding nature reserves and residential areas.
Kaneko Hideto, who resides in Setagaya Ward, said, “Without informing surrounding residents of anything, the Tokyo metropolitan government is going ahead with the construction work. By the time everyone notices, a gigantic expressway will be right over here.”
An 84-year-old man on a farm near the planned junction site said, “None of the neighborhood associations around here were invited to have any consultation about the construction. I have been keeping the urban area green the hard way by farming for years.”
The Japanese Communist Party has opposed the project, arguing that the amount of money spent for the construction of only a 3-km section of the overall length of the planned loop could create certified-childcare centers covering 30,000 children and special nursing-care homes capable of admitting 20,000 elderly persons.
JCP representative Kachi Kayoko at a plenary session of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on June 4 provided data illustrating that the Tokyo Outer Ring Road will have little effect on traffic congestion. Kachi demanded that measures dealing with peoples’ living conditions and their welfare be given priority over the unneeded construction project.
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