The Tidal Basin: A Dialogue on the Sanbanse Landfill, 2001

The Tidal Basin: A Dialogue on the Sanbanse Landfill, 2001

On September 26, 2001, at a plenary session of the Chiba Prefectural Assembly, Governor Akiko Domoto officially announced that the long-planned Sanbanse Landfill Project would be withdrawn. This moment was the fulfillment of a pledge she had made since assuming office, and represented a major turning point in prefectural politics.

The Sanbanse is a shallow water and tidal flat off the coast of Ichikawa and Funabashi cities, and during the period of rapid economic growth, it was proposed several times as one of the candidate sites for reclamation of Tokyo Bay. 90% of the tidal flats disappeared due to the bayfront development that continued from the 1960s, but miraculously it was the last precious tidal flat that survived. In the 1990s, however, the land reclamation plan was raised again, and although the original 740 hectares has been reduced in size, concerns about the destruction of nature have not disappeared.

After assuming office, the governor held a series of symposiums with the participation of local residents and listened to the voices of fishermen, environmental groups, and citizens. Based on this, his comments to the assembly were not mere administrative decisions, but they carried weight as "representing the voice of the people of the prefecture. However, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers, who make up the majority of the assembly, expressed strong opposition. One after another, they voiced such opinions as, "Stopping the landfill will set back the prefecture's economic infrastructure," and "Destroying public works projects will shut down the future of the prefecture.

Governor Domoto, on the other hand, calmly countered. Citing the fact that Yoriko Kawaguchi, Minister of the Environment of Japan, has already questioned the validity of the plan and that the preservation of tidal flats is being emphasized internationally, he explained that this was a wise decision in light of the current trends. Outside, citizens' groups shouted "Protect the Sanbanse," and fishermen appealed that their livelihoods would not be possible if the fishing grounds were lost. Environmental groups argued that the tidal flats are a treasure house of biodiversity and should be preserved for future generations. This exchange, which took place both inside and outside the assembly, was truly a scene of clashes between the values of the times.

Looking back to 2001, the traditional model of prioritizing development was reaching its limits due to a combination of public criticism of public works projects following the bursting of the bubble economy, ballooning municipal debt, and the international environmental agreements symbolized by the Kyoto Protocol. Chiba Prefecture itself was saddled with more than 1.9 trillion yen in municipal debt and could no longer afford to rely on conventional large-scale public works projects.

The withdrawal of the Sanbanse landfill opened the way for a new planning process with the participation of local residents that went beyond the simple dichotomy of economic or environmental concerns. The idea of creating a Chiba model for tidal flat restoration, based on the example of conservation in San Francisco Bay in the United States, began to take shape. Amidst a mixture of opposition and support in the Diet, citizens' voices on the streets, and international trends, this decision marked a major shift in values, from development to the environment.

Thus, the battle over the Sanbanze became more than just a question of whether or not to develop the area; it became a forum for dialogue about the direction in which Japanese society as a whole should move.