The legal gridlock over the Isahaya Bay dike in Nagasaki Prefecture continues as the government keeps paying fines each day for failing to honor a finalized Fukuoka High Court ruling in 2010 that ordered the state to open the floodgates to probe the link between the closure of part of the bay and local fisheries damage. Meanwhile, the Nagasaki District Court earlier this month rejected the government's objection to its 2013 injunction that prohibited the state from opening the gates in accordance with the 2010 ruling.

The complicated court battle threatens to drag on between local fishermen, who blame damage to their shellfish and seaweed hauls on changes in the flow of the sea current after the floodgates were closed in 1997 to reclaim part of the Isahaya Bay, and farmers, who settled in the reclaimed area and oppose the opening of the gates, saying that incoming seawater would ruin their farmland.

The government says it's bound by the two conflicting court decisions. But it should realize that it is the ¥250 billion government project that divided the fishermen and Saga Prefecture on one hand, and the farmers and Nagasaki Prefecture on the other. The standoff leaves the fishermen unhappy over their declining hauls and the farmers jittery about the future of the reclaimed land they've cultivated for years. Instead of relying on the courts to sort out the mess, the government needs to take the initiative and resolve the gridlock.