THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
November 25, 2022 at 17:00 JST
An apartment complex is seen at the site of the former Olympic Village in the capital’s Harumi district on July 23. (Takuya Isayama)
A new subway line connecting central Tokyo with the capital's waterfront by the 2040s is being planned to meet the needs of commuters in these growing areas, The Asahi Shimbun has learned.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is expected to announce the plan on Nov. 25.
The line will connect Tokyo Station with the Tsukiji district, where the former site of a longtime fish market will be redeveloped, and the Harumi district, where the former Olympic Village was converted to a large-scale apartment complex.
The Tokyo metropolitan government estimates the cost of opening the line to be around 500 billion yen ($3.6 billion).
The new subway line will be around 6 kilometers long and one station will be built approximately every one kilometer of the line, according to sources.
Under the plan, there will be seven stations. Their provisional names are Tokyo, Shin-Ginza, Shin-Tsukiji, Kachidoki, Harumi, Toyosu-Shijo and Ariake-Tokyo Big Sight.
The metropolitan government also is considering connecting the new line with the Haneda Airport Access Line, which links central Tokyo with the airport and is planned by East Japan Railway Co. (JR East).
The need for a new subway line is apparent considering the growth of the affected areas. For example, the new apartment complex in the Harumi district on the former Olympic Village site is expected to be inhabited by 12,000 residents in total.
The metropolitan government plans to redevelop the former site of the Tsukiji fish market, which was moved to the Toyosu district in the capital in 2018.
In addition, the growing Tokyo Waterfront City has seen the construction of new high-rise apartments in recent years. As a result, the population there increased to around 18,000 in 2020 from about 11,000 in 2010.
Despite such growth, there are only a limited number of ways to travel from these areas to central Tokyo. Therefore, the metropolitan government has been tackling the commuting issue.
Members of the transport policy council under the transport ministry proposed at a meeting in July 2021 that more consideration be given to opening a new subway line connecting central Tokyo and the capital’s waterfront area.
They said that such a line is expected to play a role in infrastructure serving as a gateway to Japan for companies and investors from around the world.
Following this proposal, the metropolitan government established a working group to discuss the possibility with transport ministry officials and experts.
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