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TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS
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Tsukiji market's move to its new premises at Toyosu has been indefinitely postponed as the saga develops.
1985: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) begins drafting a plan to renovate Tsukiji.
2001: Calling Tsukiji "too old, small and dangerous to be used as Tokyo's kitchen", then Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara drops the renovation plan in favour of relocation.
2010: Mr Ishihara announces Toyosu as the new location, prompting safety concerns as the new premises were home to a gas plant from 1956 to 1988.
November 2014: The TMG announces it will conduct tests over two years to monitor groundwater samples at Toyosu to assuage lingering anxieties.
July 2015: Bolstered by test results that have shown no issues, then Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe, announces Nov 2, 2016, as the last day of operations of Tsukiji's inner market. The outer market is not affected. Toyosu is to open five days later on Nov 7.
Aug 31, 2016: Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, elected a month earlier, announces that the move will be suspended as it would be "illogical" to commit to a relocation before results of a groundwater test report are out.
Sept 10, 2016: Ms Koike reveals that the Toyosu site is missing a layer of clean soil, meant to be 4.5m deep, that experts say is needed to insulate the site from toxic contaminants. In its place are underground concrete chambers, where flooding has been discovered.
Sept 29, 2016: The eighth round of official groundwater tests yields results that, for the first time, reveal levels of contaminants that exceed safety standards. The amount of cancer-causing benzene is 1.4 times and poisonous arsenic 1.9 times the respective safety limits. The TMG conducts a ninth test.
Nov 25, 2016: Ms Koike punishes 12 current and six former TMG officials involved in the debacle, saying there was "crucial misconduct".
Jan 14, 2017: In the ninth groundwater test, benzene is detected at 79 times the safety limit. Cyanogen, a type of colourless toxic gas banned in environmental standards, is also found in dozens of spots. The TMG says it will do another test.
May 2017: An expert panel is expected to complete its assessment of the safety standards. Ms Koike will decide on whether to proceed with the relocation after that.
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Walter Sim