| Histoire |  |
 |
The construction and expansion of Narita Airport in Japanese history led to one of the most infamous (and violent) conflicts between the Japanese government and the Japanese population, its bitterness still reflected in prominent cane-armed police at the airport. This conflict perhaps reflects the centrality of land-ownership tradition in Japan. The conflict was a major factor in deciding to build the new Osaka and Nagoya airports (Kansai and Chūbu respectively) offshore on reclaimed land, instead of again trying to expropriate land in heavily populated areas.
Construction
By the early 1960s, Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) was quickly becoming overcrowded. Its location on Tokyo Bay made further expansion difficult, as a large amount of new land would have to be created in order to build more runways and terminals. While this strategy was used for later airport projects in Japan (such as Kansai International Airport), the government believed that landfill in the bay would be too costly and difficult, and would hinder the development of the Port of Tokyo. Haneda also suffered from airspace restrictions due to its central location and proximity to US airbases, so the government feared that further expansion of Haneda would lead to overcrowding in the sky.
In 1962, the Japanese government began investigating possible alternatives to Haneda, and proposed a "New Tokyo International Airport" to take over Haneda's international flights. The rapid postwar growth of Tokyo caused a shortage of available flat land in the Kantō region, so the only viable location for the airport was in rural Chiba Prefecture. Initially, surveyors proposed placing the airport in the village of Tomisato; however, the site was moved 5 km northeast to the villages of Sanrizuka and Shibayama, where the Imperial Household had a large farming estate. This development plan was made public in 1966.
At the time, the socialist movement still possessed considerable strength in Japan, evidenced by the large-scale student riots in Tokyo in 1960. Beside locals who had lived in the area for many years and were unwilling to relinquish their land, many in the "new left" such as Chukaku-ha opposed the construction of Narita Airport, reasoning that the real purpose for the new airport was to provide additional facilities for US military aircraft in the event of war with the Soviet Union. In the late 1960s, a group of local residents combined with student activists and left-wing political parties formed a popular resistance group known as the Sanrizuka-Shibayama Union to Oppose the Airport (三里塚・芝山連合空港反対同盟, Sanrizuka-Shibayama Rengo Kūkō Hantai Dōmei?), which used a combination of popular appeals, lawsuits and actual guerilla warfare tactics to hinder the government's development plan.
Eminent domain power had rarely been used in Japan up to that point. Traditionally, the Japanese government would offer to relocate homeowners in regions slated for expropriation, rather than condemn their property and pay compensation as provided by law. In the case of Narita Airport, this type of cooperative expropriation did not occur: some residents went as far as using terror by threatening to burn down new homes of anyone who would voluntarily move out.
Under the 1966 plan, the airport would have been completed in 1971, but due to the ongoing resettlement disputes, not all of the land for the airport was available by then. Finally, in 1971, the Japanese government began forcibly expropriating land. 291 protesters were arrested and more than 1,000 police, villagers and student militants were injured in a series of riots, notably on 16th September 1971 when three policemen were killed in a riot involving thousands. Some protesters chained themselves to their homes and refused to leave.
Takenaka Corporation constructed the first terminal building, which was completed in 1972. The first runway took several more years due to constant fights with the Union and sympathizers, who occupied several pieces of land necessary to complete the runway. The runway was completed and the airport scheduled to open on March 30, 1978, but this plan was disrupted when, on March 26, 1978, a group armed with Molotov cocktails drove into the airport in a burning car, broke into the control tower and destroyed much of its equipment. This delayed the opening by another two months, to May 20, 1978.
Although the airport did open, it opened under a level of security unprecedented in Japan. The airfield was surrounded by opaque metal fencing and overlooked by guard towers staffed with riot police. Passengers arriving at the airport were (and still are) subject to baggage and travel document searches before even entering the terminal, in an attempt to keep anti-airport activists and terrorists out of the facility. The last anti-airport riot, orchestrated by left wing militants known as Chukaku-ha, took place in 1985.
JAL moved its main international hub from Haneda to Narita, and Northwest and Pan Am also moved their Asian regional hubs from Haneda to Narita. Pan Am sold its Pacific Division, including its Narita hub, to United Airlines in February 1986. ANA began scheduled international flights from Narita to Guam in 1986 and expanded its presence at the airport through the 1990s to become the #2 carrier at the airport after JAL.
Original expansion plans
Under the original plan, New Tokyo International Airport was to have three runways: two parallel northwest/southeast runways 4,000 m in length and an intersecting northeast/southwest runway 3,200 m in length. Upon the airport's opening in 1978, only one of the parallel runways was completed; the other two runways were delayed to avoid aggravating the already tense situation surrounding the airport. The original plan also called for a high-speed rail line, the Narita Shinkansen, to connect the airport to central Tokyo, but this project was also cancelled with only some of the necessary land obtained.
On November 26, 1986, the airport authority began work on Phase II, a new runway north of the airport's original main runway. To avoid the problems that plagued the first phase, the Minister of Transport promised in 1991 that the expansion would not involve expropriation. Residents in surrounding regions were compensated for the increased noise-pollution with home upgrades and soundproofing, although some farmers who refused to give up their land were forced to keep henhouses close to the threshold of the new runway. This runway opened on April 18, 2002, in time for the World Cup events held in Japan and Korea that year. However, its final length of 2,180 m, much shorter than its original plan length (2500m), leaves it too short to accommodate Boeing 747s. Phase II also involved a second passenger terminal, completed by Takenaka Corporation on December 6, 1992.
Through the end of the 1980s, Narita Airport's train station was located fairly far from the terminal, and passengers faced either a long walk or a bus ride (at an additional charge and subject to random security screenings). Transport Minister Shintaro Ishihara, now governor of Tokyo, pressed airport train operators JR and Keisei Railway to connect their lines directly to the airport's terminals, and opened up the underground station that would have accommodated the Shinkansen for regular train service. Direct train service to Terminal 1 began on March 19, 1991, and the old Narita Airport Station was renamed Higashi-Narita Station.
In the late 1980s, the Union to Oppose the Airport constructed two steel towers, 30.8 meters (102 ft) and 62.3 meters (206 ft) respectively, blocking the northbound approach path to the main runway. In January 1990, the Chiba District Court ordered the towers dismantled without compensation to the Union; the Supreme Court of Japan upheld this verdict as constitutional in 1993.
Current issues
On April 1, 2004, New Tokyo International Airport was privatized and officially renamed Narita International Airport, reflecting its popular designation since its opening. Following privatization, the airport has reached record traffic levels, and several construction projects are ongoing.
In addition to the ongoing political disputes, which have lessened in severity over the years, arguments over slots and landing fees have plagued the busy airport. Because so many airlines want to use it, the Japanese aviation authorities have limited the number of flights each airline can operate from this airport, making the airport expensive for both airlines and their passengers.
One of the most constant criticisms of the airport has been its distance from central Tokyo—an hour by the fastest train, and often longer by road due to traffic jams. The distance is even more problematic for residents and businesses in west Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, both of which are much closer to Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport). The Narita Rapid Railway, scheduled to open in 2010, will alleviate the problem to some extent by shaving 20 minutes off the travel time. It has been announced that new Skyliner express trains with a maximum speed of 160 km/h will travel on this new line between Tokyo's Nippori Station and Airport Terminal 2 Station in 36 minutes, which compares favourably with other major airports worldwide. Improvements such as the Wangan Expressway have shaved off travel time to Kanagawa Prefecture by bypassing Tokyo.
Several gates at Narita are being refitted with double-decker jetbridges to accommodate the Airbus A380.
Although the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has given Narita a monopoly on international air service to the Tokyo region, that monopoly has been gradually weakening. Haneda has had limited international service for some time, beginning with flights to Taiwan and later replaced by flights to Gimpo Airport in Seoul, and Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai. Following the construction of Haneda's Runway D in 2009, the government aims to transfer other international services to Haneda in order to relieve Narita's congestion and expansion problems. The Ministry of Transport continues to investigate the possibility of building a new reliever airport on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay or off the Kujukuri coast of Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has proposed redeveloping Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo as a civil airport.
The future Hyakuri Airfield (Ibaraki Airport), opening in 2009, will relieve traffic for domestic passengers destined to/from Ibaraki and Tochigi Prefectures, and potentially those in Gunma. Technically, the runway here is large enough for jumbo jets. Shizuoka Airport, currently under construction, could take away Numazu-Fuji area passengers that would otherwise come to Narita.
Due to environmental concerns raised, in particular from surrounding residents, significant cost in addition to airport construction alone was created. (e.g. approx. 40 billion Yen for noise protection and 20 billion Yen for electromagnetic protection). In total approx. 320 billion Yen have been spent to compensate for environmental impact of the airport since its opening.
On November 20, 2007, Japan's immigration and border management system which is called J-VIS was installed. This system scans index fingerprints from both hands and takes a digital facial photo of landers and checks against the database of the Immigration Bureau of Japan.
Source Wikipédia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_International_Airport
Texte soumis à la licence GNU : http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html |
Voir le tabloid
