Narita airport to send letters asking landowners to sell plots

Sunday 11th May, 07:24 AM JST

NARITA —

Narita International Airport Corp has decided to send letters as early as June to about 1,200 people, who own land the company wants to purchase, asking them to sell their plots, company sources said Saturday. It will be the first attempt by the company to secure the cooperation of the landowners, who reside in Japan and overseas and opposed the building of the airport, since the company was privatized in 2004.

The company has yet to complete the purchase of around 34,000 square meters of land, of which the 1,200 people own about 2,700 square meters in six locations. The land in the six locations is divided into very small plots making it difficult for the airport to purchase them. There are also three other locations—about 1,900 square meters in total—owned by three local people and the company will continue direct negotiations with them, the sources said.

With the acquisition of the land, the company is hoping to make Narita airport as unified as possible as the airport marks the 30th anniversary of its opening May 20.

According to the company, the landowners mostly live in Japan, but nine of them live in seven countries—the United States, France, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Paraguay and South Africa.

The company’s predecessor, the New Tokyo International Airport Authority, also sent letters to landowners for three years from 1988 asking them to sell plots but most of them did not agree.

10 Comments

European1 at 09:27 AM JST - 11th May

and if they don`t send we will do as our Chinese Gov. colleagues: Take Away with little benefits!
capone at 10:01 AM JST - 11th May

eurogov: which they shoulda done years ago anyway
presidentbaka at 02:27 PM JST - 11th May

If the airport wants them that badly, the owners of the land could do very nicely from this if they play their cards right. If I was one of the land owners, I'd sell, sure, the airport could have my plot of land for $1000 for each area a 10,000yen note covers! Not an unreasonable asking price considering.
realist at 02:47 PM JST - 11th May

Why dont the J Government abandon Narita and concentrate on making Haneda the main international airport? Why they ever built Narita in the first place is beyond me. Its is in the back end of nowhere, far to far away from Tokyo and a hell of a place to get to, whatever means you choose. If I were these landowners, Id tell the Narita Airport owners to go and take a running jump!
evil_robot at 02:55 PM JST - 11th May

I'm still wondering what fool built that airport so far from Tokyo. Every other major city in the world is at the most 1 hour from a major airport. Not only do you have to dish out 3,000 yen regardless of mode of transportation to get there one way, you have to sit at least 2 hours during the process! What a pain. They're bothering those poor farmers for the land because they're cheap, that's what! Narita airport is run by a bunch of cheapos and that's why it's so far away on a rice field. If they built it in Tokyo the Tokyo government would charge them into the ground with fees and land taxes. This country is filled with the greediest businessmen...
GW at 04:28 PM JST - 11th May

Narita is already the worlds most expensive airport by landing fees & Haneda cudnt handle all the flights without going to a 24hr operation, maybe & there is thing known as cargo, there is no where near the space to handle trucks & air freight at Haneda, like it or not Tokyo needs Narita

And dont forget Haneda ALWAYS shuts down whenever there is a bit of wind!
capone at 05:05 PM JST - 11th May

all underdeveloped countries have this problem
lipscombe at 06:47 PM JST - 11th May

doubt the Japan of 2008 will see a re-run of the riots of 1971 over this very same issue, the fire has long since sizzled out into a national sigh and "shouganai"
Alphaape at 08:53 AM JST - 12th May

I am not sure if Japan has "Imminent Domain" laws like in the US that allows the gov't to take your land for the use of public projects (highways, rails, and other public right of way issues). Of course they have to pay a fair market value for the property.

But I guess if they did have these laws they would not apply since now the Narita Airport Corp is a private company, and even in the US there has been issues raised since private companies have been influencing local gov't to make a case for their purchase of the land so that developers could take away private land to build a mall (they call it increasing the tax base).

In this case, I wonder if the problem could be resolved by the airport commission to just rework the land that they do have and reorganize and make more efficient use of the land. The way I see it from my visits, they waste more of the land there instead of making the most efficient use of it.
westurn at 12:26 PM JST - 12th May

I wonder if they will go back to the "armed guards" to protect the train lines like they did back in the 1990's ! When I first came to Japan I used to see them lurking about with their rifles in and around concrete train platforms and overhangs... real scary stuff. Being from the US I never saw military guards, rifles in hand, looking so menacing. This was my first introduction to "safety Japan."