The 27th annual Tokyo Bay fireworks festival on Saturday night will be the last until at least 2020 due to development of the Harumi area for the Tokyo Olympics.
The festival starts at 6:50 p.m. About 12,000 fireworks will be shot up from barges in Tokyo Bay. The best views are from Harumi Park, near Kachidoki Station on the Oedo subway line.
However, those viewing areas will no longer be available from next year as work starts to build the athletes’ village for the Olympics in Harumi where tens of thousands of spectators usually flock to get the best view of the fireworks.
Festival organizers say local businesses stand to lose about 37 billion yen over the next five years if there are no fireworks.
The popular event was first held in 1988 and has only been suspended twice – in 2011 out of respect for the victims of the Tohoku disaster and last year, when strong winds forced its cancelation.
© Japan Today
7 Comments
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Kenny Iyekawa
If I have to choose between Olympics and fireworks, give me fireworks pls
TrevorPeace
This is shameful.
JeffLee
No thanks. It's a nice idea, but the crowds are crushing with basically nowhere to sit. Never mind the humid heat.
AU_user_since_1998
Support the Tokyo Olympics preparation effort of the government. Fireworks can be done in other places in a matter of 1 year planning. Since they are using barges, they can do it offshore near the shorelines Yokohama, Tokyo Disneyland (in between KASAI Rinkai-Koen) or Chiba. There also the Edogawa, Arakawa, Tamagawa and other fireworks festivals in Tokyo.
cleo
That doesn't help the local businesses that stand to lose all that business. I doubt that the Olympics will do much to make up the shortfall.
Peter Shaw
a pity but i'm sure they will put a display on elsewhere instead, if not there are plenty of others.
harvey pekar
What's five years to allow a structure to be built that'll block the view of the bay for generations to come and then only those who live in these overpriced apartments can enjoy the fireworks from then on...