I Remember Nothing

Former Governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, had a testimony in the special committee on the issue of relocation of Tsukiji Fish Market, or Article 100 Committee, on Monday. While he recognized his responsibility as the top leader on the decision of relocating the market to Toyosu, where pollution of the soil by old gas plant was detected, Ishihara reiterated that he did not have any memory about details of the project. The prolonged scandal has still not reach a final solution.

At the beginning of testimony, Ishihara reiterated his weakness of memory caused by cerebral infarction two years ago. “Regretful enough, I forgot every Japanese cursive syllabary. I have many things that I cannot remember,” told Ishihara in front of the members of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. The first summoning witness to former Governor in TMA was shortened from firstly planned three hours to one with consideration of Ishihara’s deteriorated health.

So, what was detected in that one-hour discussion? On the process of deciding relocation to Toyosu, Ishihara recognized his responsibility on it. “As the leader on the top of hierarchy of Tokyo Metropolitan Government, I decided it as a unanimous conclusion of the organization,” said Ishihara. He also explained that pollution of the soil could be settled, according to the report of my staffs.

One of the biggest questions in the scandal was how the government made the deal with Tokyo Gas Corporation, the owner of old gas plant in Toyosu. In the previous testimony of former Vice-governor, Takeo Hamauzu, it was revealed that Tokyo government offered secret deal on purchasing the land of Toyosu. That invited a doubt that Tokyo government had already realized the pollution.

Ishihara attributed the details of the deal to his staffs. “I left it to Hamauzu and received no report from him,” told Ishihara about the agreement in 2001, which made Hamauzu the negotiator on the deal and minimized responsibility of Tokyo Gas on the pollution. He also refused remembering what he had done on the decision of reducing payment of Tokyo Gas for decontamination from ¥33.8 billion to ¥7.8 billion at the time of purchasing the land property in Toyosu. There appeared no new fact why Tokyo government reduced the payment of Tokyo Gas.

Ishihara insisted that Toyosu was the best place for Tsukiji Market to go and accused incumbent Governor, Yuriko Koike, of her reluctance of the relocation. For Ishihara, responsibility of the details of relocation is on his staffs and of the scandal on Koike. As cunning Japanese politicians have been doing, Ishihara is escaping from his responsibility as the top leader.