UNIQUENESS OF TOKYO NARITA

 Tokyo Narita International Airport (NRT) still contains several active plots of private farmland right in the middle of its taxiways and runways.


This is the result of the Sanrizuka Struggle, a decades-long (and often violent) conflict between the Japanese government and local farmers that began in the 1960s.

The most famous is Takao Shito, a third-generation farmer who continues to cultivate organic vegetables on land that is literally surrounded by the airport's infrastructure. Mr. Shito refused to sell, even after being offered over $1.7 million. If you look at a satellite map of Narita, you’ll notice a taxiway that takes a sharp, unnecessary curve. It was forced to go around Mr. Shito’s property

Special tunnels were built to provide access to Mr Shito and others to access their homestead and farmland.

The presence of these residents is one of the primary reasons Narita has a strict curfew (usually no flights between 12:00 AM and 6:00 AM), as the noise levels for the families living on the grounds would be otherwise unbearable.

Besides Mr Shito's property there are several others who live inside the Narita boundaries casing airport surface infrastructure to make bizarre curves and deviations.

The farmland isn't the only "non-airport" structure trapped within the fences. There is also a small Shinto shrine called Tōhō Shrine (東峰神社) that sits right at the end of the B-Runway (Runway 34R).

The shrine was originally the spiritual center for the local Tōhō village. When the government bought up the surrounding land, the villagers and activist groups refused to let the shrine be moved or demolished. They viewed it as the "soul" of their resistance.

While the farmer Takao Shito represents the physical refusal to leave the land, Tōhō Shrine represents the spiritual refusal. Even though the village it once served is gone, the shrine remains—a tiny, quiet patch of trees and stone standing defiant against the roar of global aviation.

PS: Calcutta Dumdum airport has a similar shrine/masjid (the Bankra Masjid) though not bang in the center like the Tōhō Shrine but close to the airport perimeter wall. The village that masjid serves was acquired and the villagers moved away, the masjid has stayed. The mosque dates back to the 1800s, serving a village that existed long before the British established the Dum Dum aerodrome in 1924.








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