Gov. Yuriko Koike spoke to the press Monday about her plans to repurpose the former site of the Tsukiji fish market and strengthen ties with Osaka prior to the 2020 Olympic Games and 2025 World Expo, setting out her ambitions for ongoing development of the capital.
The former site of the Tsukiji fish market, which closed last October after 83 years of operation, is a 23-hectare slot of land adjacent to the Ginza and Shinbashi districts. In the short term, the property will be used as a transportation hub for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, as it has the capacity to serve as a staging area for up to 3,000 buses and cars.
"It is very much a prime location within Tokyo," Koike said during a news conference conducted in English at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, adding that she hopes the site will provide a "new image for this vision of Tokyo and also become a site for international exchange in the future."