Kishihama Park Finishes Setup Ahead of Ceremony; Bag Checks Open at 11 a.m., Rain Call Comes the Morning Of

Setup at Kishihama Park was finished by the morning of the 6th ahead of Sunday's Arrival Remembrance Day ceremony at noon. According to the city's civic engagement division, the flower altar, guest seating, the low temporary stage for the opening performance of the Shore Lullaby, and the relay cameras for three welfare facilities across the city were all in place the day before, leaving only a final sound and video check for the morning of the ceremony. The division formally announced on the 6th that the area around the venue will be closed to vehicles from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the 7th. As previously reported, bag checks were planned around the venue; it was newly decided that the checkpoint will open at 11 a.m., an hour ahead of the noon start. "If the line builds up right before the opening, it will collide with the arrival of the first-generation attendees," a coordinator said. "Having people arrive a little early works out better for everyone in the end."

The observation point nearest the venue remains active as part of the ongoing spring-tide campaign, which runs through the evening of the 7th, meaning security and screening routes will cross paths with observation-vehicle traffic along the same stretch of waterfront. In response, the civic engagement division and TDA agreed on the 6th to set up a joint field office beside the venue for the day of the ceremony only. "The observation itself is an unrelated calendar coincidence, but with people moving through the same space, it's safer to unify communications," a TDA spokesperson said. Although TDA has repeatedly stressed that the overlap is coincidental, this marks the first time the two sides have coordinated at the operational level, sharing a radio frequency and timing vehicle movements around the ceremony's peak arrival window between 11 a.m. and noon.

Small rain tents have already been set up as part of the venue preparations, and the ceremony will proceed outdoors as planned in light rain. Only if heavy weather is expected does the city have a contingency to move part of the program, including the Shore Lullaby, indoors to the Bay Community Hall previously used for rehearsals. That call will be made at 6 a.m. on the 7th, timed to TDA's forecast release that morning. "Given the burden on the first-generation attendees, we'd like to decide early whether it's indoors or outdoors, but we want to hold out for the best possible call," a coordinator said. The forecast as of the 6th calls for a mix of sun and cloud with low rain chances, but the coordinator added, "Even when the numbers look good, we're still keeping the preparations ready."

Systems such as the volunteer driver program and the joint field office are recent additions, the civic engagement division said; ceremony records from a decade ago make no mention of bag checks at all. "As the number of first-generation attendees has fallen, we've paradoxically needed to design each individual flow of movement more carefully," a coordinator said. "The old approach, from when the numbers were larger, doesn't work anymore." This paper, now in its 114th year of publication, has covered the ceremony every year, and this round of pre-ceremony reporting cross-checked changes against several years of the newsroom's own bound archive volumes.

The bay monorail, still running its previously reported slow service between Fukagawa and Kameido, will add two extra trains between roughly 10 a.m. and noon on the 7th, the operator announced on the 6th — a larger increase than the one arranged for the earlier Autumn Window Day lighting event on the same stretch. Guides will be stationed at key points along the walking route to the venue from the morning of the 7th, and the civic engagement division asked that "anyone coming by monorail check the route from the station in advance." Press registration is up on past years, with 37 outlets, including out-of-city and international media, now registered; a press area separate from the previously reported guest seating will be set up in one corner of Kishihama Park.

Mayor Ukai Motoko addressed the ceremony at her regular briefing on the 6th. "I usually say we should look at the numbers before making a fuss, but tomorrow isn't about numbers," she said. "I want it to be a day the first-generation attendees are glad they came to." TDA director Hiura Makoto, speaking the same day alongside an update on the observation campaign, said, "The observation is the observation, and the ceremony is the ceremony — we'll run each one as plainly as we can. We'll keep saying what we don't know when we don't know it, but tomorrow, just for the day, I'd like to set that not-knowing aside." Both officials plan to attend the ceremony.

The 80 volunteer drivers who completed final training, as previously reported, ran a last check of their contact network and pickup-time procedures by messaging app on the evening of the 6th. Asakura Misaki, 20, the university student escorting the ceremony's oldest attendee, 101-year-old Kishitani Tane, said, "When I called her yesterday, she laughed and said, 'Tomorrow I'm just listening, so it's nothing to worry about.' I'm the nervous one." Kishitani's grandchildren said, "She's calm about it, but honestly we haven't felt settled since yesterday — especially since our child is in the chorus." As previously reported, Kishitani's great-grandchild is among the students from Bay Third Junior High School singing the Shore Lullaby that opens the ceremony.

Operational guidelines for the ceremony were also distributed to press and attendees on the 6th. For the first time, they include a request to refrain from flash photography and live video during the opening performance of the Shore Lullaby. "We want to protect the point of singing it without knowing what it means, so we'd like that to be a time for listening first, before recording," a coordinator explained. Still photography remains permitted, and this paper plans to distribute a special post-ceremony edition around Kishihama Park.

This year's ceremony will host 121 first-generation invitees, roughly half the number from a decade ago, with an average age in the late seventies, as previously reported. It begins at noon on the 7th at Kishihama Park with the Shore Lullaby, relayed to three welfare facilities for those unable to attend in person. "As far as preparation goes, we're essentially done for today," a coordinator said, closing out the day before the ceremony. "Tomorrow, it's just a matter of running through it, one step at a time, as planned."