lecture around the country on the construction of unnecessary dams (Yoshimoto 2000: 30).
Fujita then documented what he saw as a deliberate reduction in funds available to his village;
that information is reproduced below in Figure 2. Notice that while over the same period the
amount of money made available for public works projects in neighboring Village A increased
almost 2.3 times, funds for Village B increased 1.8 times, and those for Village C increased 1.16
times, while funds for Kitō village were slashed to 67 percent of the 1990 amount.
[Figure 2 about here]
Anti-dam activists in Kitō documented other obstacles they faced when fighting against the
planned dam in their village: many received threats about losing their jobs or physical harm and
some had the financial aid for school attendance for their children cut suddenly without
explanation (Tamura 1998: 16 – 17).
Similarly, citizens in Okutsu Village in Okuyama Prefecture resisted the construction of
the Tomata Dam for more than thirty years, and as a result, they argue, were punished with the
suspension of funds from the central and prefectural government for road repairs, facilities, and
the like. After attempts at constructing a citizen’s hall stalled by the central government for more
than four years, town leaders charged the bureaucracy with deliberately paralyzing the
community. Citizens in the village applying to the Ministry of Construction to rebuild storage
sheds and other facilities destroyed in a fire were refused permission to do so. One citizen
argued that the government attempted to use all of its regulatory power to push citizens out of the
village (Asahi Shinbun 20 October 1992). Activists argued that deliberate bullying and pressure
from the central government pushed out anti-dam mayors from Tomata and reduced the number
of those who opposed the dam’s construction to a single land holder. Once he was isolated and
without community support, the Ministry of Construction then utilized forcible Eminent Domain
to seize his land for the project, knowing he had little community support (Amano 2001: 48-49).
20
Convention