It’s amazing to think – over one third of all 44 venues for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics are in the Tokyo Bay, landfill property developed over centuries, but particularly over the past 100 years.

According to Associate Professor Robin Kietlinski of LaGuardia Community College of the City University of New York, 16 venues for the Olympics will be held in what had been previously the open waters of Tokyo Bay.

In a talk Dr. Kietlinski gave on Friday, September 27, 2019, at the newly opened Japan campus of Temple University, she explained how the physical landmass of Tokyo along the Western edges of Tokyo Bay began to grow when Edo was established in the early 17th century as the de facto capital of Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate. But in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, and the firebombings of Tokyo during World War II, rubble was poured into the western and northern shores of Tokyo Bay.

Around the time of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, when the engine of the Japanese economic miracle was really beginning to rev, the waste produced by the tremendous growth in population, industry and consumerism was growing faster than they could manage it. Tokyo waterways were polluted and odorous. The landfill in Tokyo Bay became the dumping grounds of Tokyo, and ran rampant with rodents and flies. As I wrote in this blog post on Yumenoshima, site of Olympic archery next year, the Self Defense Forces had to be called into exterminate the fly infestation.

Today, as Dr. Kietlinski explained, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has built waste processing plants that pulverize and incinerate waste. All of the incinerator ash is then used for landfill in Tokyo Bay, continuing plans to increase the terrestrial space in the bay, according to this explanation of waste management from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Here is a list of all of the venues, including the Olympic Village, that sit in the middle of Tokyo Bay. You can see get more information on the Olympic venues here.

• Aomi Urban Sports Park – 3×3 basketball, sport climbing
• Ariake Arena – volleyball
• Ariake Gymnastics Center -gymnastics
• Ariake Tennis Park – tennis
• Ariake Urban Sports Park – BMX, skateboarding
• IBC/MPC (International Broadcast Center/Main Press Center)
• Kasai Canoe Slalom Center – canoe (slalom)
• Odaiba Marine Park – marathon swimming, triathlon
• Oi Hockey Stadium – field hockey
• Olympic Village
• Tatsumi Water Polo Center – water polo
• Tokyo Aquatics Center – swimming, diving, synchronized swimming
• Sea Forest Cross-Country Course – equestrian
• Sea Forest Waterway – canoe (sprint) and rowing
• Shiokaze Park – beach volleyball
• Yumenoshima Park Archery Field – archery