Almost everyone who comes to Tokyo via Narita International Airport notices the lush green fields surrounding the runways and terminal buildings. It's a nice sight after sitting on an airplane for so long.

Some new arrivals get confused, however. "This can't be Tokyo," I once heard a startled tourist proclaim on the journey from airport to metropolis. "Where are all the buildings? It's just a bunch of trees!" Patience, my friend, this "bunch of trees" happens to hold significant history in these parts.

In 1966, the administration of then-Prime Minister Eisaku Sato decreed that a stretch of farmland in the Chiba Prefecture villages of Sanrizuka and Shibayama should make way for an international airport. The locals disagreed. In that same year, female farmers chained themselves to stakes and swore they would never give up their land. Riots and protests followed, the first wave of what was essentially Japan's most enduring farmer's rebellion.