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Posted on 06/28/2006 2:03:03 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
TOKYO — A group of landowners who for decades blocked the development of Tokyo's Narita International Airport were ordered by a Japanese court on Wednesday to sell their property.
The Chiba District Court ordered the 12 landowners to sell six plots totaling 1,116 square yards _ less than a quarter acre _ to airport authorities, said court spokesman Naoto Shikano.
The landowners are part of a left wing group called the Kitahara faction, which spearheaded fierce opposition to the authorities' appropriation of land.
Protests and violent clashes over the airport _ linked to the violent revolutionary politics of the 1960s and 70s _ led to delays in its opening and expansion and resulted in six deaths.
In Wednesday's ruling, judge Makoto Hasegawa asked Narita International Corp. to pay a total of 2.55 million yen ($22,000) to compensate the landowners, Shikano said.
The airport is located 40 miles northeast of Tokyo, and opened in 1978 with a single runway.
A second runway was added in April 2002 _ ahead of the soccer World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea in June that year _ to handle mostly short flights between Tokyo and other Asian cities.
Airport officials have repeatedly pressed the government to allow a longer runway to accommodate jumbo jets, after dropping plans for a 8,202-foot runway when farmers and other residents refused to give up land needed for the project.
The airport authority filed suit in 2002 to purchase the tract from the landowners over protests from opponents who complained about noise and the government's appropriation of land without permission.
A court last year ordered the owners of two other lots to sell their property to the airport authority, allowing the company to begin the long-delayed extension to its second runway.
The project should be completed by 2010 and will cost 33 billion yen ($284 million).
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did they get a friend-of-the-court brief from Souter?
First with the airport.
Then comes the nuclear testing.
Next thing you know: GODZIRRA!!!!
Narita truly needs the land , this is a very appropriate use of eminant domain... I regret that I never flew the "checkerboard" approach into HK.
But the price sounds low. Is there any occupied land near a city in Japan going for only $80K an acre?
I flew from Tokyo to Seoul this April on a Korean Air 747 which is certainly a jumbo
Seems the land has been taken by eminent domain for the corporation--done. Can the (former) owners contest the amount of compensation at this point?
Look at the size of the lot these people own. It totals less than a quarter acre. These 12 aren't landowners, they are protesters. The same thing happened in Okinawa where protesters bought square meter parcels to block use by the American military.
Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
I lived in Japan when these protestors were offered roughly 10 times for the same amount of land. However, then as now, they weren't interested in selling, only in protesting.
If Tokyo had it to do all over again, they would probably have done what Osaka did-- build the airport on a manmade island in the bay. Expensive construction costs, but low legal costs.
Excellent point.
Remember these guys?
"The total cost of Kansai Airport so far is $15 billion, which is 40% over budget (mostly due the problem of the island sinking). The airport is still deeply in debt, losing $560 million in interest every year. Airlines have been kept away by high landing fees (approximately $7500 for a Boeing 747), the second most expensive in the world after Narita's. Partly because of these and other problems, the airport is often referred as being a white elephant. Nowadays, after deep discounts, the number of flights is increasing."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_International_Airport
Do you know about the group in Okinawa basically doing the same thing? They were very active in the 90's when I was stationed in Atsugi. They had cherry picked land to buy that was on American military bases and once a year would lead a protest march demanding to "use" their property.
I'm sure the "farmers" are heavily subsidized by the government, because there was no way they could feed a 1/2 a person per farm and they were out there working their "fields" during the day.
It appears if you don't want to live on top of your neighbor in Japan, you need to be a farmer. Its seems the only way to get a house with a yard.
Between 12 people they have bought a parcel with a total size less than a quarter acre with the express purpose of blocking the airport.
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