No.33 Feel the Wind of Nakagawa (Boat Race Edogawa)

(Inagi Newsletter published on July 15, 2014)

Do you know about the boat racing venue located in Edogawa Ward? Its official name is Edogawa Racecourse, and it is the only motorboat racing course in the country that uses a river, specifically the first-class river "Nakagawa" flowing through the western part of the ward, with Inagi City also participating in its operation.
The Edogawa Racecourse was first held in 1955 after being designated by Tokyo Metropolitan Government as the implementer of the Motorboat Racing Act Article 2. In 1967, the "Tokyo Metropolitan Six City Boat Racing Business Association," consisting of six cities including Hachioji City, joined as an implementer. Subsequently, in 1973, due to the intentions of then-Governor Minobe, the Tokyo Metropolitan boat racing business was abolished, and the "Tokyo Metropolitan Three City Revenue Business Association," consisting of Inagi City, Tama City, and Akigawa City (now Akiruno City), entered the scene. Since then, these two associations have been operating while sharing the hosting rights, continuing to this day.
At the time of the entry of the Three City Revenue Business Association, it was the period of high economic growth, and the dividends to the constituent cities steadily increased every year. The dividends to Inagi City started at 400 million yen in fiscal year 1973 and reached 1.5 billion yen at its peak in fiscal year 1991.
However, with the collapse of the bubble economy, both the number of visitors and sales figures languished for a long time, dropping to 10 million yen in fiscal year 2001.
Since then, efforts have been made to improve management, such as automating the sales windows for winning boat tickets and revising the operation method to a joint operation of both associations, reducing hosting costs, and striving to maintain and increase dividends.
The total amount of dividends distributed to Inagi City so far has exceeded 15.6 billion yen, providing valuable non-tax revenue.
This fiscal year, in addition to selling unnecessary fixed assets, we aim for further management improvement and cost reduction by comprehensively outsourcing business operations to private companies.
Facility renovations are also progressing, and we are preparing various viewing seats, from free admission external sales offices to special viewing seats with individual monitors labeled GOLD, and we look forward to your visit. A free shuttle bus is available from the nearest Toei Shinjuku Line Funabori Station. Along with sightseeing at the Skytree, water buses, and various downtown attractions, please take a moment to enjoy the water-based combat sport of boat racing.