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Imperial Palace moats illegally occupied by businesses

The moats surrounding the Imperial Palace have long been an urban oasis for Tokyoites. For families on weekends to salary men on their lunch break, the moats offer a range of pleasure activities from rental boats and fishing ponds to restaurants. But what most people don't know is that these establishments do not have an assigned lot number, which means that they do not officially “exist.” 

A spokesperson for the Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau confirms that “According to our map, every one of the establishments is found on top of the water and not on land. There are no registration entries for them, since there are no lot numbers given to the water.”

Does that mean the moat is illegally occupied by these establishments? Shukan Post visits some of them. 

“Are you telling me that our presence here is illegal? Hold on a minute. I have the building registry,” one of the restaurant owners said. Further investigation showed that there was a building registry, but the land registry was nowhere to be found.

Next, Shukan Post contacted one of the boat rental shops. “This is the story that we were given permission before, but no longer have permission to operate our business, isn’t it? We are currently in litigation, so I can’t make any comments,” said the manager.

“The moats are state-owned assets,” said a Chiyoda Ward official. “The inner moat is owned by the Environment Ministry and Imperial Household Agency. The outer moat is owned by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. In the case of the outer moat, it is under the Tokyo metropolitan government's management. And Chiyoda Ward actually takes care of it as a subordinate body.”

“Following the law on state-owned assets, the Environment Ministry has given permission to operate the business every five years since 1950 to the present,” the ward official said.

The problem of the illegally occupied outer moats dates back to the 1940s. The Chiyoda Ward official explains: “In order to revitalize the economy and to create an oasis, the former Kojimachi ward (now called Chiyoda after unifying with Kanda ward) gave permission to operate the fishing pond and the boat rentals from 1946 to 1948.”

It turns out that the Tokyo government first gave permission, so what is all the fuss about?

“When Tokyo was named host city for the summer Olympics, the city withdrew permission for all those businesses at the moats in order to carry out dredging operations. That never happened and the businesses continued,” said the ward official. “Ever since then, businesses have operated without permits. Every year, we put out a notice about restoring the status quo, but no talks have been held between the two sides to this day. If you ask me, operating a business without a permit on public land or water is illegal.” 

One restaurant owner tells a different story than that of the Tokyo government. “We were asked to start the business by the government mainly because their finances were poor back in those days. As time progressed, much of the moats became landfills, but we tried to preserve our significance as an urban oasis. The problem lies with the government. The persons in charge are always being transferred, so nobody fully understands the story behind this anymore.”

It is still unclear who will win the ongoing battle between the two sides, but Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara has decided to step in. He has already assigned a special team to study the issue as he tries to push Tokyo's bid to host the summer Olympics in 2016. The bitter memory of failing to clear the moats back then remains. (Translated by Toshiya Fujii)

August 25, 2006

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Imperial Palace moats illegally occupied by businesses
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