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Letter From Tokyo
Tree huggers spring into action as axe falls on trees across Japan
They lament the absence of tree-protection laws as thousands of trees, some century-old, make way for buildings and other projects
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A row of 280 sakura trees in Yokohama are due to be chopped down for roads to be widened ahead of, ironically, the World Horticultural Exposition in 2027.
In Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Gaien, nearly 1,000 century-old trees are at risk of falling victim to the construction of a baseball field and other mixed-use facilities.
