High court sides with fishermen, orders opening of Isahaya Bay dike

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) The Fukuoka High Court ordered the central government Monday to open the Isahaya Bay dike in Nagasaki Prefecture for five years, ruling in favor of local fishermen who claim the reclamation project has damaged the local environment and their industry.

The decision, which upholds the Saga District Court's ruling from June 2008, will likely have a great impact on the course of the huge public works project.

"It cannot be said that the closing of the dike is requisite for farming," Judge Hiroshi Koga said. "It is illegal if the state effectively violates the (plaintiffs') fishing rights."

In line with the Saga court's ruling, Koga also said the government should put a three-year moratorium on the opening the dike, noting that it needs to construct an alternative disaster prevention facility.

The high court ordered that the gates north and south of the dike be left open for five years.

In the 2008 ruling, the court recognized that the closing of the dike had caused damage to the bay and the surrounding area, although it denied there was a causal link between the closure and damage to the entire Ariake Sea.

The state consistently denied there was such a correlation and maintained that if the gates were to be opened, the area would face a greater risk of disaster, such as flooding and high seas, and that fresh agricultural water wouldn't be secured because ocean water will be flowing into the water reservoir.

The plaintiffs from four prefectures alongside the bay — Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka and Kumamoto — argued that their fish catch dropped after the closure of the bay and that the correlation is clear.

The central government first came up with the project during the 1950s as a way to increase national rice production. It officially formulated the details of the project in 1986, claiming it would also help reduce the risk of flooding and other water damage in the area.

The government lopped off the bay with a 7-km tide prevention dike in 1997 to drain the water and create arable land and a water reservoir. The entire project cost roughly ¥250 billion when it was completed in March 2008.

About 40 individuals and corporations are engaged in farming the drained farmland.

Also Monday, the Fukuoka High Court rejected the request from people in Nagasaki that the prefecture's spending of public money on the reclamation project should be suspended as the project is illegal, upholding the Nagasaki District Court's decision.