Are three months enough time to persuade Narita landowners to sell after three decades in which they have steadfastly refused to make way for the New Tokyo International Airport?
Last month, the Transport Ministry set the Golden Week holidays in May as the deadline for breaking the current deadlock over acquisition of land it has long coveted for a second runway for the airport.
Two senior officials from the ministry and the New Tokyo International Airport Authority delivered letters last week to antiairport residents in the Toho district in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, calling for discussions. "I take the visit as a start," Toru Nakamura, president of the airport authority, said at a recent news conference. "First of all, I hope they will sit down for a talk and then we can try to find a way to resolve the issue."