Bob's Bullets - Storm the Bastille
TOKYO — The petition to save Meiji Jingu Stadium has reached 13,000 signatures so far. Reuters, CNN, and Asahi Shimbun online have picked it up. The opposition has been growing. But there is not much time left. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is fast-tracking the Jingu Gaien project, rushing things through the process so that the project will all be approved and at a point of no return before the Diet reconvenes on Jan. 23.
Rochelle Kopp, president of Japan Intercultural Consulting, has been doing the heavy lifting in regard to opposing the Meiji Jingu project. A petition she set up last spring had more than 50,000 signatures. Last fall, a group of 27 Diet members formed a group to work against the project. But the project is still plowing forward.
A few days ago, a former Japan national rugby player, Tsuyoshi Hirao, set up a new petition that focuses on the rugby stadium.
This helped draw more attention to the issues, especially from people who are less interested in trees and more interested in sports. But Meiji Jingu Stadium is the really important one.
The right field stands, home of the Yakult Swallows famed umbrella pumping oendan, will shrink in the design for the new stadium and the view of greenery will disappear.
Space was needed for the Meiji Jingu Shopping Mall!
So the next few days are crucial for us to make as much noise as possible in a last ditch effort to whip up public opinion and get attention in the media and on social media, which is the only hope to sway Tokyo Governor Koike to not let it go forward. Rochelle has been lobbying the Tocho. We have to help.
Onward and upward.
Storm the Bastille if necessary.