(30 Mar 1980) More than 4,000 demonstrators rally and march peacefully to protest the planned expansion of Japan's new international airport at Narita, 40 miles east of Tokyo. Some 10,000 riot police take position around the airport, searching cars entering the airfield and barring access to all except passengers and workers. The rally passes without any of the violence of which Narita has seen in the past years. The demonstration was organised on the second anniversary of a protest and attack on the Narita airport which caused half a million dollars damage and delayed the airport's opening by nearly two months. The airport became a controversial issue from the time the government chose the site in the mid 1960s. It drew protests from farmers whose land was taken, homeowners who feared noise pollution and residents objecting to the transport of jet fuel to the airport through built-up areas. Anti-government leftists also joined in. A proposed fuel pipeline still has not been built and the airport has only one runway. As the rally nears conclusion, protestors at another site set fire to piles of tyres, sending thick clouds of black smoke billowing into the sky along the flight path. The fire eventually burns itself out and planes land as scheduled.
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