Narita airport to send letters asking landowners to sell plots+

NARITA, Japan, May 10 (Kyodo) - Narita International Airport Corp. has decided to send letters as early as June to about 1,200 people, who own land the company wants to purchase, asking them to sell their plots, company sources said Saturday.

It will be the first attempt by the company to secure the cooperation of the landowners, who reside in Japan and overseas and opposed the building of the airport, since the company was privatized in 2004.

The company has yet to complete the purchase of around 34,000 square meters of land, of which the 1,200 people own about 2,700 square meters in six locations. The land in the six locations is divided into very small plots making it difficult for the airport to purchase them.

There are also three other locations -- about 1,900 square meters in total -- owned by three local people and the company will continue direct negotiations with them, the sources said.

With the acquisition of the land, the company is hoping to make Narita airport as unified as possible as the airport marks the 30th anniversary of its opening May 20.

According to the company, the landowners mostly live in Japan, but nine of them live in seven countries -- the United States, France, Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, Paraguay and South Africa.

The company's predecessor, the New Tokyo International Airport Authority, also sent letters to landowners for three years from 1988 asking them to sell plots but most of them did not agree.