High court again orders state to open Isahaya Bay dike

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

High court again orders state to open Isahaya Bay dike

The Fukuoka High Court on December 6 upheld the lower court ruling ordering the government to open the Isahaya Bay dike in Nagasaki Prefecture.

The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Ministry in 1989 began a state-run reclamation project in Isahaya Bay in the Ariake Sea, southern Japan, in the name of bolstering disaster-prevention countermeasures and securing the prime agricultural land. Under the project, the government partitioned the bay with a 7-km tide-control dike to drain the water and create farm land and a water reservoir.

Fishermen of the four prefectures surrounding the Ariake Sea ? Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto, in 2002 filed a lawsuit with the Saga District Court calling for the opening of the sluice gate in the sea dike on the grounds that the local fishing industry was being heavily damaged. In 2008, the court ordered the state to open the gate.

The high court ruling recognized a causal relationship between the reclamation project and the heavy blow to the fishing industry by saying, "It is highly likely that the closure of Isahaya Bay resulted in a sharp decrease in fishery stocks around Isahaya Bay."

Manaki Akio representing the plaintiffs' lawyers group said, "The court accepted our point of contestation. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan must open the gate without causing more delay by appealing to the Supreme Court."

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on the same day commented on the high court ruling, "This ruling is significant because it acknowledges that the reclamation project harmed the local fishery industry. Given the fact that the DPJ promised to open the sluice gate, it will be unacceptable if it turns its back on the ruling. The DPJ must decide to open the gate without delay and undertake the preparation for that."

- Akahata, December 7, 2010