Originally Posted by hoyateach
. . . When the airport was first built back in the 1960s/70s, the gov't forcibly confiscated a lot of farmland to build it on since there was nowhere else closer to Tokyo that hadn't already been developed. They paid the farmers fair market value (so I've heard) but of course, the farmers were less than thrilled at the idea. . . .
My understanding (from my friends in Japan, nothing official) is that this airport was built in Narita because at least one of the politicians in charge of solving overcapacity problem at Haneda owned some of the land that now sits under NRT. My friends also tell me that expanding Haneda was an option but NRT was chosen purely based on political corruption. I have no idea if any of this is true, but expanding Haneda would have certainly been a much more convenient option for travelers than creating this new airport in the middle of nowhere.