A Yokohama housewife has submitted a petition with 15,000 signatures opposing Tokyo's plan to build a canoe course for the 2020 Olympics in fauna-rich Kasai Rinkai Park.

Shizuka Watahiki, 40, collected the signatures via the online signature-gathering site Change.org in the hope of persuading the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to find a different site.

Watahiki's appeal on the site says "Please do not destroy Kasai Rinkai Park's nature that has taken 25 years to form just to hold a five-day Olympic canoeing event."

"I got the impression that the metropolitan government is not considering altering the event's site at this stage," she told a news conference Wednesday after submitting the signatures. "I would like to submit signatures to the International Olympic Committee after sending out messages in English and gathering signatures from around the world."

The Wild Bird Society of Japan, an environmental group seeking to preserve habitats for wild birds, is also against using the park, which it said provides a habitat for 226 species of birds.