Central Breakwater

[1] Jurisdiction over the Central Breakwater islands was disputed between the special wards of Koto and Ota for 4 decades.

Under Japanese law, any boundary dispute may be submitted to the prefectural government (in this case, the Tokyo metropolitan government) for resolution; a similar dispute with regard to the nearby Odaiba and Ariake area was resolved in 1982 by splitting the area between the three special wards that claimed it.

[1] Koto has argued that the garbage used to create the landfill was hauled through Koto and that making the island part of the special ward would repay residents for their trouble, while Ota has argued that the site of the breakwater was historically used by Ota-based nori cultivators, and that the island should be managed in coordination with nearby Haneda Airport (which is part of Ota).

The dispute is mainly considered an issue of brand image; jurisdiction over the island offers little practical benefit to the special wards, as fixed asset taxes on real estate are collected by the metropolitan government.

[citation needed] From December 17 to January 31, 2020 the public made 532 proposals for the town name of the west side to be incorporated in Ota Ward.