{"id":56355,"date":"2023-07-01T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T00:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/jul\/01\/tokyo-anger-plans-redevelop-historic-city-park-meiji-jingu-gaien"},"modified":"2023-07-01T09:00:04","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T00:00:04","slug":"tokyo-would-lose-its-soul-anger-over-plans-to-redevelop-historic-city-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=56355","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tokyo would lose its soul\u2019: anger over plans to redevelop historic city park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Campaigners say turning Meiji Jingu Gaien into a commercial hub will destroy 1,000 trees and area\u2019s architectural heritage<\/p>\n<p>It is a leafy oasis in a city smothered in paved streets and concrete high-rises; a mecca for sports fans who flock to baseball and rugby matches at its two historic stadiums; and a place of tranquility where, while attending a ballgame in 1978, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/harukimurakami\">Haruki Murakami<\/a> decided to become a novelist.<\/p>\n<p>But if developers and the Tokyo metropolitan government get their way, Meiji Jingu Gaien, a popular park in the centre of Tokyo, will be bulldozed and turned into a commercial hub dominated by two skyscrapers, a hotel and new sports venues.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/jul\/01\/tokyo-anger-plans-redevelop-historic-city-park-meiji-jingu-gaien\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Campaigners say turning Meiji Jingu Gaien into a commercial hub will destroy 1,000 trees and area\u2019s architectural heritageIt is a leafy oasis in a city smothered in paved streets and concrete high-rises; a mecca for sports fans who flock to baseball an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41,456,65,88,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-conservation","category-environment","category-japan","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56356,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56355\/revisions\/56356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}