The Boundary Wave Swallows Up - Tokyo Bay Final Disposal Site and the Tug of War between Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Chiba Prefecture, 1995

The Boundary Wave Swallows Up - Tokyo Bay Final Disposal Site and the Tug of War between Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Chiba Prefecture, 1995

In the 1990s, Japan was forced to confront head-on the "waste problem" that had arisen as a byproduct of its rapid economic growth. Despite the recession and social stagnation that followed the collapse of the bubble economy, urbanization and mass consumption in the Tokyo metropolitan area continued unabated, and securing a final disposal site for waste was a pressing issue for the government. In Tokyo in particular, the existing "landfill outside the central breakwater" was nearing full capacity, making the construction of a new disposal site inevitable.

The solution to this problem was the construction of a new offshore disposal site. Located in the central part of Tokyo Bay near Chiba Prefecture, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government was to take the lead in the construction of a vast landfill site. However, the blurring of prefectural and metropolitan borders was an administrative blind spot that only the sea could solve.

Chiba Prefecture argued that the area covered by the disposal site straddled the jurisdiction of its own prefecture, and it was at loggerheads with Tokyo over issues such as fishing rights, tax revenues, and land registration in connection with the construction of the disposal site. Complex interests were also involved, including compensation for the fishing cooperative association and the division of responsibility for any marine pollution that might occur.

In July 1995, the two parties finally reached a basic agreement. The agreement was an "iridescent settlement," under which the area of the repository would be regarded as "common land," compensation for the fishing industry would be paid jointly, and tax revenues would be shared through negotiation. However, this was only the beginning. Many more issues remained to be resolved, including landfill management, water quality conservation, sharing of responsibility for refuse delivery routes, and land use after the landfill was completed.

What this problem symbolized was the reality that the urbanization of a city is expanding environmental problems beyond its administrative boundaries. As the multiple municipalities bordering the bay jostle with each other over the interests of their residents and administrative authority, Tokyo Bay has become not a "sea of boundaries" but a "sea of strife.

This incident was a precursor to the "wide-area waste disposal administration" that would emerge later in the 2000s. The adjustment of environmental problems is deeply rooted not only in dealing with nature, but also in the interests of human society and the delineation of lines. The new sea-level disposal plant was a silent but sure reminder of this.