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Tuesday 7 December 2010

Fishermen stage sit-in to urge gov't to open Isahaya Bay dike

TOKYO —

Fishermen from Nagasaki and Saga prefectures staged a sit-in protest Tuesday demanding the government immediately open two drainage gates of the Isahaya Bay dike in Nagasaki in line with the previous day’s high court ruling in their favor.

‘‘Our life is on the edge. I see no other ways toward our recovery but the opening of the dike,’’ Naoki Nakata, a 60-year-old fisherman from the Nagasaki city of Shimabara, said as he took part in the demonstration in front of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry building in Tokyo.

On Monday, the Fukuoka High Court ordered the state to open the gates for five years, recognizing that the 1997 closing of the bay with a 7-kilometer dike for the government’s reclamation project in the bay had caused damage to fishery in the local area.

‘‘Yesterday’s ruling rejected almost all claims by the government,’’ said Ryoichi Hori, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. ‘‘Will the state accept the immediate opening or push itself further to appeal the ruling?’‘

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku expressed willingness the same day to open the gates for a research purpose, but still hinted at the possibility of the government bringing the case to the Supreme Court, telling a press conference it will ‘‘look at the case including the possibility of appealing and deal with it appropriately.’‘

The top government spokesman said the government should adopt a policy in accordance with the April conclusion by a panel of government and ruling party officials that the gates should be opened to study the impact of the reclamation on the environment and fishing.

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