Local News

The Fukuoka High Court upheld the 2008 Saga District Court ruling agreeing with the plaintiffs—fishermen from Nagasaki, Saga, Fukuoka, and Kumamoto Prefectures—that the closure of the Isahaya Bay dike for a reclamation project has harmed the fishing industry, and ordered the dike opened for five years. Judge Hiroshi Koga said that local agriculture does not require the dike to be closed, and that closing it violates fishing rights. The judge also said the government should put a three-year moratorium on the opening the dike because a different disaster prevention scheme is required.