Results of the polls : 55% participation, 90% against the dam (totaling more than half the total number of eligible voters). And a prime minister who said this morning that it would not change much about the project...
The paper is big but stayed online only until a few hours ago, so I copy it here.
Yours,
JC Helary -----------------------
Thumbs down to dam: Poll
By MASATO TAINAKA
Asahi Evening News
TOKUSHIMA-Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi this morning did not seem inclined to respect the outcome of Sunday's referendum here in which an overwhelming majority of voters came out against a government plan to build a movable dam across the Yoshino River.
``I haven't heard of any plans to stop the project,'' Obuchi told reporters the day after the nation's first referendum on a central government public-works project.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki echoed Obuchi's statement, saying: ``The project is important for the lives and properties of people living along the river.''
While the outcome of the referendum is not legally binding, critics of the way public works projects are conducted in general hope the result will have an impact on other controversial projects. Their hope is that the government will now be required to develop a system where the decision-making process for public-works projects will be more open, and the voice of citizens will be heard.
``Our victory has shown that citizens can resist the way the Construction Ministry bulldozed the plan through without listening to the views of citizens,'' said Masayoshi Himeno, a representative of Daijuzeki Jumintohyo no Kai (Daijuzeki Referendum Group), in his victory remarks at the group's office in Tokushima city.
``We have been able to let people all over the country know there is a way to stand up to public-works projects, if we citizens have the willpower,'' Himeno said.
After the referendum Sunday, Tokushima Mayor Masakatsu Koike said in a news conference he had changed his position of neutrality on the project to one of opposition.
``The outcome of the referendum should be respected and I will ask the (central) government to offer alternative plans,'' he said. He added that he would convey his message to the Tokushima office of the Construction Ministry today.
Makoto Nakajima, an active member of a number of civic groups and a professor of regional economics at Tokushima University said: ``So many citizens going to vote to express their opinions confirms that democracy has gradually taken root in this country.
``Citizens get to participate in policy making, not leaving it to authorities such as politicians and bureaucrats,'' he added.
The referendum was deemed valid after voter turnout surpassed 50 percent. Under the city's 50 percent rule, the poll would have been invalid if turnout had been less than 50 percent.
According to the Tokushima city election administration commission, 113,996 residents, 55 percent of the 207,284 eligible voters, cast their ballots. A total of 102,759 (90.14 percent) opposed the dam, while 9,367 (8.22 percent) voted for it. There were 1,870 invalid votes, or 1.64 percent.
Volunteers and supporters, who gathered at the their campaign office, applauded with shouts ``arigato!'' when they were informed voter turnout had surpassed 50 percent.
During the campaign, another civic leader, Masashi Noguchi, organized volunteer drivers to take elderly people in hospitals to polling stations.
``We will participate in the decision making process on the Yoshino River improvement plan, creating a new model of the relationship between citizens and authorities toward the 21st century,'' said Noguchi.
The civic group involved in the anti-dam campaign are calling on the Construction Ministry to reconsider the 100 billion-yen project in accordance with the River Law, revised in 1997, which stipulates that the ministry should reflect citizens' opinions on river-related projects.
Under the project, the 250-year-old Daijuzeki rock barrier on the Yoshino River was to be replaced with a movable dam. The Construction Ministry insisted the old rock barrier was vulnerable to flooding. The project's opponents countered that the project was a waste of money, and would damage the environment.
After the referendum results were announced, the head of the Construction Ministry's local office in Tokushima, Kazunori Odaira, said in a news conference Sunday night: ``We will not alter the plan because of the outcome of the vote. This is not the kind of issue to be decided by a referendum. We will seek solutions through dialogue with citizens.''
However, the referendum-the tenth to be held in Japan and the first to be held on a government-proposed public-works project-is expected to have a wide-ranging impact not only on the dam itself, but for other public works projects facing similar opposition.
``It is a big step for democracy in Japan that citizens have a way of saying something to the government,'' said Shoichi Chibana, a member of Yomitanson-village assembly in Okinawa Prefecture, who has long protested the presence of U.S. bases in Okinawa.
Muneyuki Shindo, a professor of public administration at Rikkyo University, called on the government to ``respect the results of the referendum,'' saying it reflects a significant change in Japanese politics.
Takayoshi Igarashi, a professor of politics at Hosei University, predicted there will be a ``domino effect'' for other public-works projects facing similar opposition.
Igarashi said there were more than 100 questionable projects in development across the country, including the Mutsuogawara development project in Aomori Prefecture, Kobe Airport in Hyogo Prefecture, and the Nakaumi reclamation project in Shimane Prefecture.
``The problem is that bureaucrats never offer the choice of stopping the project, at its isn't in the the ministry's interests,'' Igarashi said.
He said public-works projects are rarely abandoned once they are planned because of the ``iron triangle,'' of politicians, bureaucrats, and business that drives them. The politicians get money and votes from businesses, and bureaucrats get post-retirement jobs which help them in their bids to become politicians.
In return, businesses get public works projects.
Just how the outcome of the referendum will be able to make a dent in this system will be the focus of a great deal of attention, observers said.
Construction Minister Masaaki Nakayama earlier said that a dam project such as the one planned at the Yoshino River was not appropriate to be decided by a referendum, but rather, should be decided on its technical and scientific merits. He called the referendum a ``mistaken exercise in democracy.''