Haruki Murakami calls for park and stadium that inspired his writing to be saved
26 June 2023, 14:14
The Kafka On The Shore novelist is opposing the redevelopment of the Jingu Gaien green district in Tokyo.
Author Haruki Murakami has said he is strongly opposed to the redevelopment of a historic Tokyo park district that would remove his favourite jogging path and tear down the baseball stadium where he was inspired to become a novelist.
The plan approved earlier this year by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike to put skyscrapers and new stadiums in the heart of the Jingu Gaien green district has become increasingly controversial.
Followers of baseball and rugby history are opposed to it, as well as conservationists and civil groups who say the project has advanced without transparency, adequate environmental assessment or explanation to the residents.
The near-century-old ball park and a neighbouring rugby stadium used for football matches during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics would be demolished under the plan, and hundreds of trees would be removed from what has been a Tokyo park district for centuries.
When finished, the new stadiums will be surrounded by nearly 650ft tall office buildings in a commercial complex.
Murakami said on his Sunday radio show: “I’m strongly opposed to the Jingu Gaien redevelopment plan.
“Please leave that pleasant jogging course full of greenery and the lovely Jingu Stadium as it is. Once something is destroyed, it can never be restored.”
Murakami used to sit beyond the outfield fence, stretching out with a beer to watch the game on a grassy slope.
The stadium helped inspire the Kafka On The Shore author to become a novelist. Murakami wrote in his 2007 memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, about the moment in the early afternoon on April 1 1978 when Yakult Swallows’ American player Dave Hilton slammed a clean double into left field.
The author recalled that “the satisfying crack when the bat met the ball resounded throughout Jingu Stadium”.
On his way home, he bought a fountain pen and started writing. His first novel, Hear The Wind Sing, was finished about six months later.
Murakami said Gaien’s circular jogging course, which is just over one kilometre long and has a mark at every 100 metres, is his favourite running spot.
During the radio show, he described “my secret, nice memory” of regularly passing another runner in the opposite direction, never speaking.
Earlier in the weekend, hundreds of people gathered outside the designated redevelopment area in Tokyo for a protest over the plans.
The Jingu Gaien dispute comes about two years after the Tokyo Olympics, which involved several newly constructed stadiums and have since been sullied by bribery scandals.
Ms Koike said the metropolitan government has appropriately handled the environmental assessment and has urged the companies involved to share information with the public on the redevelopment.
The project will take 13 years to complete, but minor construction has already begun.
The first court hearing on a lawsuit to suspend the work will be held later this week.
