This summer could be the final time the Tokyo Bay Grand Fireworks Festival is held, ending a spectacular annual celebration that began in the feel-good years of the late 1980s.
The extravagant, early evening display for hundreds of thousands of viewers perched on balconies, terraces and dock quays around the inner part of the bay is being suspended because the Olympic Village will soon be built on the vacant plot of land that the bulk of the spectators use, officials said Thursday.
The hiatus is scheduled to last only until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is out of the way, but it looks unlikely that the event will resume at the current site because the area will have become a residential neighborhood.