A 2006 documentary revisiting the Sanrizuka struggle forty years after the Japanese government decided to build Narita Airport. Focusing on the Toho district, where farmers continued to live and work under the flight path, the film documents the long conflict over land, development and state power. English subtitles have recently been added.
In 1966, the Japanese government decided to construct a new international airport at Sanrizuka in Narita, Chiba Prefecture. The decision was made without prior consultation with many local residents, including farmers whose homes and fields stood on the proposed airport site.
The resulting resistance developed into the Sanrizuka struggle, one of the most intense and long-running conflicts in postwar Japan. Farmers defending their land were joined by students and activists, while the state responded with compulsory acquisition, riot police and repeated attempts to complete the airport project.
This documentary was made around the fortieth anniversary of the original 1966 decision. It focuses particularly on the Toho district, where residents continued to refuse the sale of their land and to farm beside the airport. Aircraft pass directly over their homes and fields.
The film is valuable not only because it records the voices of farmers and long-time opponents of the airport, but also because it includes interviews with former airport officials, local politicians and supporters of airport development. This gives a complex picture of how the conflict continued decades after the most famous clashes of the 1960s and 1970s.
For readers familiar with libcom’s existing material on Sanrizuka, this documentary offers a later snapshot of the struggle and of the people who remained on the land.
English subtitles are available on the YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YhQFTq2JmM
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