"Down with Narita" Sign
 

So I've finally been to NRT now (via AA and CX). What's up with that "Down with Narita" sign that's practically on the NRT property?

Is this just a cultural misunderstanding and that "Down with Narita" is somehow expressing a positive?

Probably protesters. 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. There some very violent protests at the time and some hard-core left-wingers are still at it. And the airport keeps trying to expand in a country where flat land is very, very scarce.

Hence the sign. I think.

Although, having been through that mess forty or so times, I'd like to take credit for it. :D

Yeah, it actually means, "Welcome to Narita - We hope you brought lots of cash with you because you are going to need it" :D

That's correct. I lived in Japan in the 70's and at one point the control tower was actually taken over by the protesters. They put up steel? plates (or something like that) to keep tear gas from being shot into the windows...It ended 'peacefully' but could you imagine what would happen now, post 9/11...

Criminy. I'm somewhat surprised the government allows it to stand. It's not the most welcoming of signs...

It might have to do with the fact that the election system in Japan is very heavily biased towards the farmers and provinces. If it has been from the postwar beginnings I'm not sure about, but strongly suspect that also US intelligence and diplomats had to do with this to minimize the impact of the working poor in the big cities in elections. The communist movement was quite strong in the postwar years and was only weakened after a joint CIA/Yakuza campaign to eliminate several leaders.

In any case, farmers hold much of Japan hostage in many ways.

Rural interests carry a disproportionate weight over city dwellers in Japan as a legacy of outdated constitutional organization, just the same as in another highly-developed western country many of us know well....

Is this why security is tight just to drive into the airport? I was on a hotel shuttle back to NRT after a quick nap, and everyone's passports on the bus were checked before being allowed to proceed. Never seen that at an airport before.

You are correct. There are checkpoints at the entrance roads leading to the airport terminals.

Narita Airport does have a pretty tortured past---the original terminal was completed around 1974, but it didn't open until 1978 because of protests from disaffected farmers and radical students. Their official opening in 1978 was delayed because someone broke into the control tower and smashed it up.

I wasn't aware of a protest sign, could you advise where it is or where I should look for it? I fly into NRT on January 9th from HKG, connecting to SFO.

Wow... it's been around for almost 30 years and it's still being protested? Sheesh.

I saw the sign both times (AA SJC-NRT, CX HKG-NRT) while sitting on the right side of the plane. It's about halfway during the long taxi to the terminals from the runway

When I waw visiting in 1978, an uncle drove us to NRT, and we were stopped at a checkpoint outside the airport and were checked out with bomb-sniffing dogs and had a mirror on a long pole go under the car to check for explosives.

As a 15 year-old, I thought it was pretty cool.

Maybe not, but Japan is a democracy that allows the freedom of expression, after all. :)

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.

[QUOTE=boilermaker]When I waw visiting in 1978, an uncle drove us to NRT, and we were stopped at a checkpoint outside the airport and were checked out with bomb-sniffing dogs and had a mirror on a long pole go under the car to check for explosives.

As a 15 year-old, I thought it was pretty cool.[/QUOTE

And in 1984, on my first Narita visit, the police at checkpoints all wore riot gear, the dogs were pretty intimidating, it was not fun and games thing.