A 6-year-old dispute over a planned waste-disposal site in the town of Hinode, western Tokyo, came to a head Tuesday when metropolitan government officials attempted to seize the 461-sq.-meter plot owned by citizens opposed to the project.
Officials of the metropolitan government, working on behalf of a group of garbage disposal companies known as the Tokyo Santama Area Regional Association of Waste Disposal, confronted protesters in an effort to start work on the plot, which is earmarked for the second-phase of an expansion plan for the Futatsuzuka disposal site.
It is the first time a local government has attempted to forcibly seize land to build a garbage dump.