Photo/Illutration A poster of musician Ryuichi Sakamoto hangs at a rally in Tokyo’s Meiji Jingu Gaien district on April 22, where protesters seek a halt to a redevelopment project in the area. (Soichi Tsuchidate)

The Japan branch of the International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) blasted the Tokyo metropolitan government’s defense against deficiencies cited over an environmental assessment of its redevelopment project in central Tokyo.

The government plans to redevelop 17.5 hectares of the Meiji Jingu Gaien district, including rebuilding Meiji Jingu Stadium and Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, as well as constructing two skyscrapers.

Concerns are growing about environmental destruction and deterioration of the landscape due to plans to chop down more than 700 tall trees, although 837 trees will be newly planted.

Experts in the Japan branch of the IAIA, a U.N.-recognized institute in the field of environmental assessment comprising more than 120 countries and regions, said the metropolitan government should ask project operators to suspend construction work until the reported deficiencies can be discussed and sorted out.

In January, the Tokyo metropolitan government released a draft of an environmental assessment report prepared by project operators.

However, the Japan ICOMOS National Committee, an advisory body of UNESCO comprising experts and groups working to preserve cultural heritage, said there were 58 areas of deficiency in the environmental assessment.

They included an insufficient survey of an iconic line of ginkgo trees in the area, a lack of studies on the adverse effects on the growth of the trees, and the absence of a necessary vegetation map.

The metropolitan government’s environmental impact assessment council concluded that “these (deficiencies) would not affect the assessment” and said the project could continue.

Sachihiko Harashina, a representative of the Japan branch and a former president of IAIA who is also president of the Chiba University of Commerce, criticized the Tokyo metropolitan government at a news conference on June 15.

Harashina said the government’s stance is “far from international standards.”

The IAIA Japan branch pointed out that the metropolitan government’s counterstatements against ICOMOS Japan were merely one-sided explanations by project operators and lacked scientific discussions.

The branch also said an open discussion between ICOMOS Japan and the project operators should be held at the metropolitan government’s environmental council to clarify whether there were actual deficiencies.

The experts criticized the metropolitan government’s stance of accepting the notification to start construction while there were still doubts about the assessment.

They said two specific evaluations were “inappropriate.”

One inappropriate evaluation was about the historical value of the Meiji Jingu Gaien district built around a century ago through public donations. The other was about biodiversity in a surrounding forest.

“The governor should be the one to put the project on hold if there is a false report,” Harashina said. “It is written in the provisions in the metropolitan ordinance. The governor’s responsibility is in question.”

Metropolitan government officials, however, appeared defiant.

An official from the metropolitan government’s environmental bureau said, “The provisions of the ordinance claimed do not cover the assessment report.”

The official also said there was no need to hold an open discussion between ICOMOS Japan and the project operators at the council.

“The council is not a place to compete over whose opinion is right,” the official said.

The official said the ordinance does not stipulate the need to provide an opportunity for ICOMOS Japan to give its explanation.

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