The Ministry of Transportation also employed non coercive tools, such as the ad hoc
provision of slight discounts on electricity bills to local residents (Interviews, 25 August 2003).
In the early 1980s, the central government developed an irrigation project to bring water into the
Narita area for the remaining farmers and communities. In most cases, the central government
covers up to three quarters the cost of such public works projects, but in this case, the central
government assumed 95 percent of the expenses (Kitahara 1996: 135).
The mid 1990s brought some calming of tensions through a series of symposia and
workshops held between the government and anti-Narita groups. Narita is a symbol,
interestingly enough, not only for government high handedness, but also siting success. Various
anti-project citizen groups cited Narita as a praiseworthy accomplishment in which the people
and the government worked out their differences. Citizens considering the Chubu Airport, for
example, looked to the formation of the Narita symposium and round table for lessons in dealing
with their own hosting issues (Chūnichi Shinbun 7 December 2002). Anti-dam activists called
for similar Narita symposia-like meetings between the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and
Transport and anti-dam groups in which the government will acknowledge its mistakes and ill
treatment of local citizens (Hagiwara 1996: 197-198).
While the resistance at Narita triggered specific institutions like the Public Order Law and
various subsidy systems to Sanrizuka and Narita area communities, the government did not
expand these measures to other airport siting cases. Because resistance to airport siting is
sporadic and inconsistent, the central government’s Ministry of Transportation developed only
three tools for weakening citizen resistance.
Central government planners point to the 1956 law Kūkō Seibihō, or the Airport
Construction law, as a set of laws enacted by authorities to assist the siting of airports through the
provisions of funds to host communities for a variety of areas, including soundproofing. In 1967
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Convention