Tokyo Airport's Expansion Reopens Old Wounds (washingtonpost.com)

By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 3, 1999; 11:33 AM

TOKYO, Dec. 3 –– A Shinto priest waved sacred boughs and blessed construction of a new runway at Tokyo's Narita airport today, as bulldozers waited to begin work that has prompted bitter demonstrations for more than three decades.

The construction workers moved onto the site two days after a 70-year-old farmer agreed to vacate his land, finally clearing the path for a new but shortened runway for the overtaxed Narita airport.

"This is a big turning point," said Yoshihito Shinbori, an official of the New Tokyo International Airport Authority. "We feel a heavy relief that we have reached this point."

For 33 years, the construction and expansion of Tokyo's only international airport have prompted pitched battles that spanned anti-Vietnam, anti-American, anti-government, leftist, pro-farm and pro-environment themes.

The demonstrations had left four policemen and two protesters dead, and the world's seventh busiest airport remained a hobbled facility with only a single runway. Most busy metropolitan airports have multiple runways.

The vehemence of the demonstrations took officials by surprise in 1966 when they grandly announced the selection of the site for Tokyo's international airport - 40 miles from the center city - without bothering to consult the residents.

So, too, did the stubbornness of some farmers there, who refused to relinquish their land and were protected both by the demonstrations and Japan's weak public-use seizure laws.

Farmers Suffered While Government Plowed Ahead

Shohei Horikoshi was one of seven farmers who held out in the face of intense pressure. He agreed to sell his land Wednesday after a visit to his home by the Chiba prefecture governor and a public letter of apology from the government.

"I did not want my grandchildren to inherit this suffering," the farmer said.

Three other farmers still remain on land that blocks the airport's original plan to build an 8,250-foot runway. After their refusals stopped the work in 1993, the Airport Authority settled on a shorter, relocated runway that will accommodate only medium-sized jets.

Shoji Shimamura, 52, is one of farmers. Even the shorter new runway will send jets about 130 feet over his home, he said today. "I can't imagine what it will be like to have the airplanes go over my head every day, day after day, time after time," he said.

But Shimamura, who has 5,000 chickens on four acres, said, "I have no intention of compromising. I can't believe the government is so inhumane."

Government officials say they were chastened by the opposition. The airport plans became a symbol of government arrogance and disregard of individuals. Environmentalists and peace demonstrators alleging the airport would be provide a transit point for American troops in the Vietnam War swelled the opposition. The airport managed to open in 1978 - three years behind schedule - with only one of three planned runways.

		"I did not want my grandchildren to inherit this suffering." Farmer Shohei Horikoshi, who sold his land for Narita's new runway after holding out since 1966.

"From the beginning we admitted we took the wrong approach," said Shinbori, of the Airport Authority. "We have become more self-reflective. We have concluded progress ought to be made by talking, not force."

But Shinbori said it is "absurd" to have a single runway taking all the passengers and freight for a bustling business center and metropolitan area of 33 million people.

The single runway, and nighttime closure to reduce noise, limits Narita's usefulness. Thirty-three countries have asked for landing rights and been put on a waiting list. The landing fees are among the highest in the world.

A Practical, But Impolitic, Solution?

Its inefficiencies have made Narita widely despised in Tokyo. The trip to the airport is costly and long, typically involving three means of public transport; Tokyo travelers must leave home nearly four hours before their flight. Even in the terminal, passengers must walk for what seems miles to get to the right desk or gate.

"It's stupid to have to spend two hours to get to the airport for a 90-minute flight to Seoul," said Junichi Yasui, director of the Civil Aviation Policy Office for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

His solution: use nearby Haneda Airport for short-haul international flights. Haneda was Tokyo's main airport until Narita opened in 1978, and has since been relegated to domestic flights.

But Haneda opened a spacious new terminal in 1993, and built three new runways - the third opens this month - on reclaimed land in the Tokyo Harbor. It is a convenient 30 minutes from downtown, and its runways are now away from residential areas so it would be perfect for night flights from elsewhere in Asia or the U.S. West Coast, he said.

But the central government's Ministry of Transport has invested too much trying to overcome the opposition at Narita to permit another international airport, he said, even though Narita would still be have the only runway long enough for long-haul flights.

"They took strong positions to convince the opponents that Narita was needed as the doorway to Tokyo. And people died," Yasui said. "Now they are worried that Haneda is so close to Tokyo, nobody would use Narita."

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