This essay examines the land exchange that granted Asahi Shimbun its Tsukiji headquarters site. It explores the swap with the Hamadayama property, archaeological findings, and the political context, questioning the relationship between media power and state assets in postwar Japan.

January 1, 2019
For Asahi Shimbun to have offered that land in a swap transaction was close to fraudulent. It was a property with almost no market liquidity and of value only as a ground or park.
A chapter I published on November 29, 2017, titled “For Asahi Shimbun to Offer That Land in a Swap Was Close to Fraud,” has now entered the top ten in Goo search rankings.
The following continues from the previous chapter.
The Asahi “headquarters site” in Tsukiji was originally state-owned land that Asahi acquired in January 1973 through a land exchange with the Ministry of Finance (then the Ministry of Finance’s predecessor, the Ministry of Finance).
In that exchange, Asahi offered its company-owned Hamadayama ground in Suginami Ward.
Local residents referred to it as “Asahi Farm,” and aside from archaeological remains, it was merely land with a field in the woods.
By contrast, the former state land in Tsukiji had previously been the site of the Maritime Safety Agency’s Hydrographic Department.
It covered a vast 14,680 square meters and was one of the most prime locations in central Tokyo.
Its current market value is estimated at around 30 billion yen based on official land prices.
That “Asahi Farm” ground was transformed dramatically through the land swap.
It is presumed that an agreement was reached between Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and Asahi President Tomoo Hirooka, and that the Ministry of Finance, acting on instructions from Tanaka, accepted the exchange.
However, Hirooka himself was merely a salaried company president.
It is only natural to assume that Asahi owners Murayama and Ueno were involved behind the scenes.
Asahi is unlisted and effectively a private enterprise, and the crucial details of the negotiations have never been disclosed.
The Ministry of Finance agreed to the exchange with plans to build government housing on the Hamadayama grounds.
However, excavations conducted between 1932 and 1938 had already revealed the Tsukayama archaeological site from the middle Jomon period on that land.
Had the Ministry of Finance known this fact, it would have been obligated to preserve the site as cultural heritage and would have deemed it unsuitable for government housing.
Construction of buildings would have been impossible.
For Asahi Shimbun to have offered that land in a swap transaction was close to fraudulent. It was a property with little liquidity and usable only as a ground or park.
This essay continues.