5. Development of the Tama area and Tokyo islands

Next, I will speak about the development of the Tama area and Tokyo islands.

Development of the Tama area

I am dealing with metropolitan government affairs from the position that the development of the Tama area is absolutely essential to push Tokyo to the top to become the world's best city. The first site visit I made after taking office as governor was to the Tama area. The opening of a section of the Metropolitan Inter-City Expressway (Ken-o-do) last year has directly linked the Kanetsu, Chuo, and Tomei expressways, greatly raising the position of the Tama area in the National Capital Region. To also contribute to the further development of the Tama area, we will work to reinforce the road network by advancing the construction of roads, including north-south routes such as the Fuchu-Tokorozawa/Kamakura-kaido Avenue route, and the Shin-Ome-kaido Avenue linking east and west.

Furthermore, we will work to implement employment policies tailored to local circumstances. In order to create a new employment support center in the Tama area, we will realign employment related facilities, including Tokyo Job Center Tama, and begin the basic design plans for the center. A large number of universities and small to mid-sized companies are located in the Tama area. We will leverage this feature and provide a place where students and business managers can interact with each other, which will also promote job placement with local companies.

Despite being one of the world's largest cities, Tokyo's wide array of fresh ingredients made possible through locally grown agricultural products is a distinctive, appealing feature of the city. I believe that the Olympic and Paralympic Games presents an opportunity to convey this attraction domestically and abroad. While taking full advantage of Tokyo's huge consumer market, we will support agricultural businesses. Through the production of high value-added agricultural products, I hope to raise their level of market competitiveness and improve profitability. We will also work to further promote the development of urban agriculture by, among others, expanding the National Strategic Special Zones to districts in the wards and Tama area that have high urban agriculture activity, and advancing the preservation and liquidation of farmland, which is the production base. I have also spoken directly with Minister Ishiba, who is also in charge of the special economic zones, about the importance of these matters. In addition, we will start renovations at the Ome Livestock Center, and with the cooperation of livestock farmers from the Tohoku region as well, we will work to significantly expand production of specialty livestock products, including TOKYO X brand pork.

Development of the Tokyo islands

On the 9th of this month, along with Metropolitan Assembly President Naoki Takashima and other members of the assembly, I visited Ogasawara, heard the opinions of residents first hand, and keenly felt the seriousness of the situation on the island. Centering in the area where Chinese fishing boats engaged in illegal operations, the TMG has already began studies on the impact these operations had on the fishing grounds using our fisheries research, patrol and guidance ships. On the occasion of replacing one of these ships, YASHIO, which covers the Izu islands, we will build a new ship equipped with the latest research and surveillance equipment and capable of reaching the waters off Ogasawara, and further strengthen our maritime monitoring activities. We will work with the central government and continue to take firm measures.

We will also devote our efforts toward the promotion of tourism in the islands. Last year, I visited the islands of Oshima, Miyakejima, and Mikurajima and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the natural environment. Looking ahead to the 2020 Games, we will enhance the environment to welcome foreign tourists through such efforts as the installation of free WiFi and multilingual signage at passenger ship terminals and airports.

Concerning Oshima Island, which suffered a large-scale sediment disaster in October 2013, we will continue to work tirelessly to raise the level of disaster preparedness, including completing the designation of sediment disaster hazard zones within the coming fiscal year.