「经济学人」Rebuilding Tokyo

Baseball fans and environmentalists are opposing a lavish redevelopment project

JINGU BASEBALL STADIUM in Tokyo has seen many iconic moments in its century-old history. Babe Ruth played there in 1934, on a tour of Japan that confirmed baseball’s popularity in the country and led to its first professional team. Over half a million Tokyoites lined the streets to welcome the Bambino and his teammates.

A plan to demolish the stadium, as part of a broader redevelopment of the central Jingu Gaien area, is therefore proving controversial. Since the city’s government approved it in February, outraged baseball aficionados have joined in opposition with heritage fans and environmentalists, concerned about hundreds of mature trees that are also slated for the chop. Over 220,000 people have signed an online petition against the redevelopment; thousands have showed up to protest against it.

It is the next phase of a project launched before the Olympic Games that Tokyo hosted in 2020, which included construction of a new national stadium next to the baseball one. In the process the city eased regulations against high-rise buildings in the area. By levelling and replacing the baseball stadium and a nearby rugby one, it aims to turn Jingu Gaien into a “world-class sports cluster”, which would also include two soaring towers, a shopping area and hotels.

To erect skyscrapers at the site, first developed as a recreational area in 1926 to honour the Meiji emperor, would be “sacrilegious”, says Ishikawa Mikiko of icomos, a unesco advisory body. Ohashi Satoko, an architect, says the existing baseball stadium, which was renovated in 2014 to be made earthquake-proof, should be maintained. She accuses the city’s officials of being trapped in the “scrap and build” mentality that defined Tokyo’s urban planning in the 1960s, a time of rapid economic growth and change in the metropolis.

Some baseball fans raise practical concerns, suggesting the planned skyscrapers could cause disruptive winds at the new stadium. Rampant redevelopment of baseball stadiums in America suggests such worries can be exaggerated. Of the dozens that hosted Babe Ruth, two remain, Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago. After Jingu Stadium goes, Koshien Stadium in Kobe will be the only other survivor.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Babe and bathwater" (Sep 21st2023)

我没有译文，仅供拓展阅读

LearnAndRecord

2015年2月8日

2023年9月26日

第3153天

每天持续行动学外语