From the postponement of the market relocation to announcement of the basic policy

In the limited time since I took office on August 2 of last year, I heard the opinions of a wide range of people. Then on August 31, I decided to postpone the relocation of the Tsukiji wholesale market to the new location in Toyosu. I made this decision because, from the standpoint of putting the people of Tokyo first, I concluded that three problems had yet to be resolved -- safety concerns, the opaque and considerable increase in costs, and insufficient disclosure of information.

To address soil contamination at the Toyosu site, the Technical Council had proposed covering the site with a layer of clean soil. But in September, soon after I announced the postponement of the relocation, it was found that this had not been done in the areas under main buildings, and that water was accumulating in the underground spaces beneath the buildings. We immediately disclosed these findings and started investigating their causes and what measures should be taken.

In the two-year monitoring of groundwater to determine the effects of soil contamination measures, substances exceeding the environmental standards were detected in the eighth survey released last September and the ninth survey released in January this year, although such substances were not detected in the previous surveys.

It was also found that Toyosu Market is, after its opening, expected to post a recurring loss of approximately 9 billion yen every year. It became obvious that we also have challenges with respect to the sustainability of Toyosu Market and the Central Wholesale Market Account.

All of these are significant issues, but because they came to light before the actual move, we were able to look into them from various angles, which I think was fortunate.

Last November, we drew up and released procedures for making a decision on the market relocation to Toyosu from a comprehensive perspective, as well as a roadmap showing the timeline. Based on these, experts, including the members of the Expert Council and the Food Market Project Team, studied the matter, the Market Strategy Headquarters conducted a comprehensive examination from the standpoint of public administration, and we heard opinions from business operators at Tsukiji Market. Each of these steps was taken carefully and attentively.