NARITA AIRPORT CONSTRUCTION
Narita Airport Construction - The history and politics of the
construction of Narita Airport.
In 1962, the
Japanese government began investigating possible alternatives to the
crowded Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport), and proposed a
New Tokyo International Airport (新東京国際空港 Shin-Tōkyō Kokusai Kūkō) to
take over Haneda's international flights. Initially, surveyors
proposed placing the airport in the village of Tomisato. However,
Tomisato residents refused to give up their land, so the site was
moved 5 km northeast to the village of Sanrizuka, where the Imperial
Household had a large farm. The government therefore had less
difficulty placing the planned airport.
Narita Airport Tokyo Arrivals
Due to land scarcity and weak expropriation laws, the initial and
ongoing development of Narita Airport has been the cause of great
controversy. Many people against the Vietnam War saw the construction
of a new airport as participation in the war effort. The Japanese
government had offered to relocate homeowners in the surrounding
regions. However, neighbours threatened to burn down new homes of
anyone who would voluntarily move. In 1971, when expropriations began,
291 area farmers were arrested and more than 1,000 villagers and
police were injured in fights. Later that year, some villagers chained
themselves to their homes and refused to leave.
The airport was scheduled to open in March of 1978. Shortly before its
scheduled opening, a group of villagers broke into the control tower
and destroyed much of its equipment, delaying the opening by another
two months.
In 1986, the airport authority began work on Phase II, a new runway
north of the airport's original main runway. To avoid the problems
that plagued the first phase, the authorities agreed not to confiscate
additional land. Residents in surrounding regions were compensated for
the increased noise-pollution with home upgrades and soundproofing,
although some farmers who refused to give up their land were forced to
keep henhouses close to the threshold of the new runway. The runway
opened in April of 2002, in time for the World Cup events shared
between Japan and South Korea.
Today, individuals continue to stage demonstrations regularly on the
eastern edge of the airport.
(Article
section from "Narita Airport construction" based on
Wikipedia article and used under the
GNU Free Documentation License)
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