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This is Tokyo Narita Airport—known worldwide for being one of those places where
the big metal things go nnneeaoowww.
This airport is home to many things, such as Blue Sky Convenience Store Gate 82, Blue
Sky Convenience Store Gate 94, and Blue Sky Convenience Store Gate 98, but one thing that
you might not expect inside an airport is a farm, and yet here one is, right in between
this taxiway and Blue Sky Convenience Store Gate 82.
Now, many airports have unique amenities to try and help them stand apart—Singapore
Changi Airport has a slide down to a gate, Denver International Airport has an open-air
ice rink, and Newark International Airport has a casino where you don’t gamble money
but rather your possessions on whether your baggage will arrive in a single piece.
Tokyo Narita’s farm, however, is not some bougie airport amenity, it’s not decoration,
it’s a real, working farm owned by someone named this guy.
This is Takao Shito and Takao Shito is the son of Toichi Shito, the father of Takao Shito,
but also the owner of this farm back in the 1960s.
This area, however, had been farmland since the year 700-ish when the emperor was like,
“yo, make this farmland.”
A couple years later Japan sort of took the “L” in World War Two so the Americans
came around and were like, “yo, don’t do the monarchy thing any more, or at least
make it low-key.”
So, as part of the low-key-afying of the whole monarchy thing, they sold off a lot of the
emperor’s farmland around here to mostly poor people who then did the farming thing.
Such they did happily until the 1960s-ish when the government was like, “yo, we need
this land to do the airport thing.”
You see, Japan was doing the economic development thing which meant more travelers coming in
which meant more airplanes which meant that this, the original Haneda Airport, was not
big enough.
Also, it was in the middle of the city… and ocean… which meant it wasn’t really
possible to make it much bigger.
Therefore, the government had the genius idea to make a new airport here… no, a little
further… little further… yeah, more… yeah, there.
They had the genius idea to make a new airport a full hour’s drive outside of the city.
Now, we all love a nice, sexy slab of asphalt, of course… that is, unless it goes over
your family’s farm because, if I know anything about farming, it’s that crop yield is inversely
proportional to whether there’s a slab of asphalt over your fields.
Of course, it turned out that this sexy slab of asphalt would, in fact, go over Takao Shito’s
farm, along with a bunch of others’ too, and the locals didn’t like that, so naturally,
they went full Les Miserables.
I mean, look at this, he’s got a spear, and this guy too, they’ve all got spears,
and they built a barricade—I mean, say what you want about Japanese obedience and manners,
but these protesters go hard.
Now, of course, the airport wasn’t going to be big enough to cover all these protestors
farms, that would be impressive, but rather, the protests got so large because they kind
of struck a nerve with the some of the increasingly prominent socialist opposition political parties
in Japan who were particularly concerned with the rise in capitalism and the increasing
US military presence in the country.
They were so hardcore, in fact, that they built and defended huge towers physically
blocking the approach path for the runways, delaying the airport’s opening for years,
but with time, the land was acquired, and the airport was built.
Except, there was just one bit that the government could never get.
You see, after the opposition got so, you know, Do-You-Hear-the-People-Sing-Y, the government
picked a new site close by on what was left of the Goryō Farm—the Emperor’s property
since the year 700 when he went, “yo, make this farmland.”
Except, since monarchy became so passé, it was much smaller, and not quite big enough
to put the airport on, so they still had to buy land from other farmers who had bought
it originally from when the land was sold off to make the monarchy more low-key.
The government had little ability to seize the land due to Japan’s strong legal protections
for farmers, but they did manage to strong-arm most owners into selling, except for Toichi
Shito.
He and his son were offered up to the equivalent of $1.7 million for his farm, but never gave
in, especially with the strong support they got from the anti-airport movement.
Therefore, Shito and his family stayed there, the airport was constructed around him, and
tunnels were built under the taxi-ways to allow for access, undoubtably at huge cost.
With the enormous delays due to the protesters continued oppositions, which included highlights
such as the throwing of raw sewage onto the riot police, the airport wasn’t opened for
a number of years after Shito’s encircling.
When it finally was, few airlines really wanted to switch their flights over to it from Haneda
because, after all, it was super, super far from the city.
So, the government made Haneda airport domestic-only, forcing airlines to switch over, and suddenly
Shito’s neighbors got a lot more noisy.
That was of no worry to him, though, and he continued farming there until his death in
1999 when his son, Takao, took over.
To this day, Takao kinda just lives his life, despite being in the middle of an international
airport, growing carrots, onions, garlic, and more that he sells at nearby markets,
helped in part by those who carry on the anti-airport movement, only with fewer bamboo spears.
Reportedly, the pandemic and ensuing drop in air travel has, at least, let him enjoy
a slightly less noisy backyard.
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