Fishermen return to fight state

SAGA (Kyodo) Citing the government's failure to comply with a district court order to open the Isahaya Bay dike in Nagasaki Prefecture, fishermen from four prefectures filed an appeal Friday with the Fukuoka High Court. Their move follows an appeal filed Thursday by the state, which cited concerns that opening the floodgates will expose communities to high tides that it said would damage farming businesses on the filled-in land there. The plaintiffs in Friday's filing, mainly fishermen from Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka and Kumamoto prefectures, are pursuing the appeal despite the favorable ruling by the Saga District Court on June 27. Finding in favor of the fishermen, who claimed the government's project to fill in the bay has damaged the seawater environment in the area and their fisheries businesses, the district court on June... [read full story]