• Home
  • Politics
  • Health
  • World
  • Business
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
What's Hot

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025

Top 10 Benefits Of Acupuncture

May 8, 2025
Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Friday, May 9
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
  • Home
  • Politics

    Security video shows brazen sexual assault of California woman by homeless man

    October 24, 2023

    Woman makes disturbing discovery after her boyfriend chases away home intruder who stabbed him

    October 24, 2023

    Poll finds Americans overwhelmingly support Israel’s war on Hamas, but younger Americans defend Hamas

    October 24, 2023

    Off-duty pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after allegedly trying to shut off engines midflight on Alaska Airlines

    October 23, 2023

    Leaked audio of Shelia Jackson Lee abusively cursing staffer

    October 22, 2023
  • Health

    Disparities In Cataract Care Are A Sorry Sight

    October 16, 2023

    Vaccine Stocks—Including Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech And Novavax—Slide Amid Plummeting Demand

    October 16, 2023

    Long-term steroid use should be a last resort

    October 16, 2023

    Rite Aid Files For Bankruptcy With More ‘Underperforming Stores’ To Close

    October 16, 2023

    Who’s Still Dying From Complications Related To Covid-19?

    October 16, 2023
  • World

    New York Democrat Dan Goldman Accuses ‘Conservatives in the South’ of Holding Rallies with ‘Swastikas’

    October 13, 2023

    IDF Ret. Major General Describes Rushing to Save Son, Granddaughter During Hamas Invasion

    October 13, 2023

    Black Lives Matter Group Deletes Tweet Showing Support for Hamas 

    October 13, 2023

    AOC Denounces NYC Rally Cheering Hamas Terrorism: ‘Unacceptable’

    October 13, 2023

    L.A. Prosecutors Call Out Soros-Backed Gascón for Silence on Israel

    October 13, 2023
  • Business

    Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

    May 8, 2025

    Electric Vehicle Sales Nosedive As GOP Takes Buzzsaw To Biden’s Mandate

    May 7, 2025

    Tyson Foods Announces It Will Bend The Knee To Trump Admin’s New Rules

    May 7, 2025

    Federal Reserve Holds Interest Rates Steady Despite Pressure From Trump

    May 7, 2025

    ‘Wait Them Out’: John Kennedy Tells Larry Kudlow One Lie He Suspects China’s Telling US

    May 7, 2025
  • Finance

    Ending China’s De Minimis Exception Brings 3 Benefits for Americans

    April 17, 2025

    The Trump Tariff Shock Should Push Indonesia to Reform Its Economy

    April 17, 2025

    Tariff Talks an Opportunity to Reinvigorate the Japan-US Alliance

    April 17, 2025

    How China’s Companies Are Responding to the US Trade War

    April 16, 2025

    The US Flip-flop Over H20 Chip Restrictions 

    April 16, 2025
  • Tech

    Cruz Confronts Zuckerberg on Pointless Warning for Child Porn Searches

    February 2, 2024

    FTX Abandons Plans to Relaunch Crypto Exchange, Commits to Full Repayment of Customers and Creditors

    February 2, 2024

    Elon Musk Proposes Tesla Reincorporates in Texas After Delaware Judge Voids Pay Package

    February 2, 2024

    Tesla’s Elon Musk Tops Disney’s Bob Iger as Most Overrated Chief Executive

    February 2, 2024

    Mark Zuckerberg’s Wealth Grew $84 Billion in 2023 as Pedophiles Target Children on Facebook, Instagram

    February 2, 2024
  • More
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
Patriot Now NewsPatriot Now News
Home»Sports»Battles Erupt Over Japan’s Plan to Demolish Meiji Jingu Stadium
Sports

Battles Erupt Over Japan’s Plan to Demolish Meiji Jingu Stadium

May 2, 2023No Comments6 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Battles Erupt Over Japan’s Plan to Demolish Meiji Jingu Stadium
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

TOKYO — Over a span of nearly 100 years, Meiji Jingu Stadium in central Tokyo has been the scene of numerous important events. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played there on a barnstorming tour, the novelist Haruki Murakami was inspired by a trip to the stadium to write his first novel and just last year Munetaka Murakami of the Yakult Swallows hit a record-breaking home run into the stadium’s stands.

An ambitious redevelopment plan, however, would have the stadium razed and replaced with a modern facility. The plan has come under intense scrutiny from disparate groups that include fans of baseball history, followers of the country’s rugby history and conservationists who are concerned about how the various projects would affect the Jingu Gaien district, a historic green space that features century-old trees provided by the industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi, known by some as the father of Japanese capitalism.

“This is like building skyscrapers in the middle of Central Park in New York,” Mikiko Ishikawa, an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, told The Associated Press of the redevelopment plan. “Tokyo would lose its soul.”

Part of that soul lies in Meiji Jingu, Japan’s second-oldest baseball stadium to Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya. The ballparks are Nippon Professional Baseball’s answers to Major League Baseball’s Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

In the redevelopment plan, Meiji Jingu Stadium and a neighboring venue, the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, which opened in 1947 and was used as a soccer venue during the 1964 Summer Olympics, would be demolished in phases. The new versions of the two stadiums would swap locations.

See also  Trump Is Considering Plan To Slap Massive Tariffs On Nearly Every Country If He Wins In 2024: REPORT

The goal of the project is to modernize the various facilities involved, which are far out of date, and to create a better environment for moving between the stadiums. Open spaces would be created and enlarged and the hope is that it would be a hub for tourism and for people to enjoy the various sporting events that would be held there. The entire project, which includes skyscrapers and a hotel, is scheduled to be completed by 2036.

At that point it will have been just over 100 years since a lineup of M.L.B. stars played five games at Meiji Jingu during a tour of Japan in 1934. Ruth put on a show by hitting 13 home runs, five of them in Meiji Jingu. The ripples of that tour are still felt, as the Japanese team compiled to take on the Americans went on to form the Yomiuri Giants, a team that would dominate N.P.B.

Forty-four years later, Haruki Murakami was in the stadium’s bleachers having a beer when he was so inspired by “the satisfying crack when the bat met the ball” that he purchased a pen and paper on his way home and immediately began writing the novel “Hear the Wind Sing.”

In 2022, it was Munetaka Murakami (no relation to Haruki) who took a turn making history, slugging his 56th homer of the year at the park and breaking Sadaharu Oh’s single-season record for a Japanese-born player.

Beyond the stadium’s history, the plans have raised concerns because the relocations would have the new baseball stadium run adjacent to a notable avenue of century-old ginkgo trees that are celebrated with an annual fall festival.

See also  Padres Dominate Giants in MLB’s Mexico City Series

The New Jingu Gaien planning website promises to “preserve the four rows of ginkgo trees and pass on to future generations the beautiful scenery with a good view of the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery.”

But the Japanese ICOMOS National Committee, which consists of a panel of experts involved in cultural heritage preservation, says the plan does not properly address the tree line nor offer scientific data about the issue.

Rochelle Kopp, a management consultant who works with Japanese businesses, has organized a petition to rethink the Meiji Jingu development, and has partnered with other activists who are concerned about how the plans will affect the trees.

“The roots have branches out as far as the top of the tree, which means they’re branching out pretty far,” Kopp said of the trees. “Tree experts have said, if you put this wall on the stadium, which is going to have piling going 40 meters into the ground, that is going to, for sure, damage the rest of the tree.”

In response to the criticisms, the developers have adjusted the plan for fewer trees to be felled, but activists have said that the trees’ complex roots systems could still be compromised and that the amount of sunlight the trees receive will be affected by the new surrounding buildings.

There are other concerns about the plans as well.

Robert Whiting, an American author and journalist who has lived in Japan for most of the last 50 years and has written several books on Japanese culture, first visited Meiji Jingu Stadium in the 1960s, he wrote, “when there were no seats in the outfield, just a grassy slope where you could sit and watch the game, spread out a blanket, drink beer and look at the sky between innings.”

See also  Does Thailand’s Plan to Finance Its 500 Billion Baht Stimulus Make Sense?

Whiting has organized his own petition against the development because of concerns about the loss of heritage, the potential damage to the current trees and the overall environmental impact of the project.

“It’s going to make for a less pleasant experience for fans,” he said.

While the issues surrounding the redevelopment project are complex, some detractors are simply focused on losing the experience of seeing games in a venue with so much history.

Lilli Friedman, a Temple University student on a study abroad program, grew up a Yankees fan in New York. She said she has become a passionate fan of Japanese baseball and that she “loves the history and being outside” at Meiji Jingu Stadium, which evokes the “same feeling as when I used to go to the old Yankee Stadium.”

“Coming from a Yankees fan standpoint, I don’t know anyone that didn’t prefer the old Yankee Stadium to the new one,” Friedman said. “I think there’s something to be said for even if it’s not the flashiest, newest stadium, keeping an environment that people really connect to, and have memories of, has a really special history especially because it’s such an endangered species now.”

battles Demolish erupt Japans Jingu Meiji plan Stadium
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Amazon Reportedly Floats Plan To Show Tariff Price Increases To Shoppers — Karoline Leavitt Calls It ‘Hostile’ Move

April 29, 2025

Trump Admin Announces Plan Stopping SBA Loans From Going To Illegal Migrants

March 6, 2025

Eli Lilly Announces Plan To Invest $27 Billion In America Amid Trump Tariff Threats

February 26, 2025

Japan’s Pragmatic Model for AI Governance

February 12, 2025
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Top Posts

Rocker Hozier Would Consider Strike over The Threat Artificial Intelligence Poses to the Music Industry

August 17, 2023

Woke NBA Players ‘Alarmed’ at Orlando Magic’s Political Donation to Ron DeSantis Group

August 5, 2023

Trans Runner in London Marathon is ‘Wrong and Unfair’

April 27, 2023

Dollar up as data highlights US economic resilience; yen slumps

September 23, 2023
Don't Miss

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

Business May 8, 2025

President Donald Trump announced Thursday the U.S. has reached a trade agreement with the U.K.,…

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025

Top 10 Benefits Of Acupuncture

May 8, 2025

Electric Vehicle Sales Nosedive As GOP Takes Buzzsaw To Biden’s Mandate

May 7, 2025
About
About

This is your World, Tech, Health, Entertainment and Sports website. We provide the latest breaking news straight from the News industry.

We're social. Connect with us:

Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest
Categories
  • Business (4,110)
  • Entertainment (4,220)
  • Finance (3,202)
  • Health (1,938)
  • Lifestyle (1,626)
  • Politics (3,084)
  • Sports (4,036)
  • Tech (2,006)
  • Uncategorized (4)
  • World (3,944)
Our Picks

Binance’s US arm struggles to find bank to take its customers’ cash, Wall Street Journal reports

April 9, 2023

Morning Bid: Inflation appetizer served before central bank main course

June 13, 2023

Fox News Cannot Replace Tucker Carlson

May 4, 2023
Popular Posts

Trump Announces First Post-Tariff Trade Deal

May 8, 2025

100 Funny Father’s Day Quotes for Hilariously Relatable Humor (and Plenty of Love Too)

May 8, 2025

Top 10 Benefits Of Acupuncture

May 8, 2025
© 2025 Patriotnownews.com - All rights reserved.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.