Preservation or Degradation of Local Cultural Assets in Central Tokyo – the Case of the Plans to Relocate the Tsukiji Fish Market

Most cultural-led redevelopment projects in today’s global cities are devised with the clear objective of stimulating their economic growth. Redevelopment schemes usually aim to develop consumption services and urban settings to make the city more attractive for investors. In many cases, redevelopment has led to a diminishment in diversity of local cultural spaces in the inner-city areas. Historically and socially important services and institutions like Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market tend to be relocated and replaced by less traditional and culturally less attractive spaces. This short-term strategy cannot really succeed in preserving or integrating local cultures, which may in the long run help Tokyo to become distinctively different from other global competing cities and to benefit from these advantages. The article analyses the plans to renovate or redevelop specific local consumption spaces in Tokyo, and explores what mechanisms and strategies are being used by the involved actors to accomplish their goals.