Former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara repeated Monday his claim that he was not responsible for selecting the contaminated site now planned to host the famous Tsukiji fish market.
"This has been decided in a flow directed by the entire metropolitan government. It was impossible to go against it," Ishihara repeated to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly committee investigating the controversial relocation plan based on a former gas plant site in the Toyosu district in Koto Ward.
Speaking as a sworn witness, the 84-year-old former governor said the plan for moving Tsukiji to the waterfront district was one of many pending issues he inherited from his predecessor when he assumed the governorship in 1999.