Japan’s Narita Airport opened in 1978 with one runway instead of the three in its master plan after fierce resistance from local farmers. Nearly 50 years later, farmer Takao Shito still grows vegetables on land enclosed by the airport, forcing a taxiway to curve around his fields. The second runway initially opened 320 metres short of its planned length—though it was finally extended in 2009—as jets continued taxiing past the farm.

Japan’s Narita Airport opened in 1978 with one runway instead of the three in its master plan after fierce resistance from local farmers. Nearly 50 years later, farmer Takao Shito still grows vegetables on land enclosed by the airport, forcing a taxiway to curve around his fields. The second runway initially opened 320 metres short of its planned length—though it was finally extended in 2009—as jets continued taxiing past the farm.

Narita's curved taxiway and its once-short second runway record the long land conflict that left a working vegetable farm inside one of Japan's major airports.