What is the Land Expropriation Act?
Former Secretary General of the Himawari Tourism Association, Nobuhiro Yamada
From April 1991 to March 1998, he served as the head of the Commerce, Industry and Tourism Section, and worked hard to develop the Himawari no Sato parking lot and tourist center. He worked hard to develop Himawari no Sato as a tourist destination. From October 2008 to March 2011, he worked to promote tourism as the head of the Industry Section and Secretary General of the Tourism Association.
For seven years, from April 1991 to March 1998, he was involved in tourism administration as the head of the commerce, industry and tourism department.
The town began to be established as a destination in 1990, and 130,000 people visited Himawari no Sato during the Sunflower Festival. Due to an inadequate system for accommodating these visitors, the grounds of the neighboring Hokuryu Junior High School were used as a temporary parking lot as an emergency measure.
However, the number of people and vehicles far exceeded our expectations, and the baseball team, who were practicing during the summer vacation, ended up being pushed to the infield.
I remember the ground was bumpy with tire tracks and it was very disappointing.
The crowds continued to grow over the years, and this temporary solution reached its limits.
Since 1994, the number of visitors has exceeded 200,000, and in the fall of 1995, talk of developing a parking lot was raised, and work began on preparing the facilities for the following year, with discussions beginning on where to connect the parking lot.
The surrounding land was farmland, but it was adjacent, so we decided to go there. "Yamada, let's apply the Land Expropriation Act to acquire it," my boss said to me.
"What on earth is the Land Expropriation Act?" I immediately looked it up, ignorant of the law. "It's a law that allows land to be expropriated from landowners for highly public projects." I decided to apply for the expropriation outside the park's parking lot. I colored in a large cadastral map, prepared numerous application documents detailing the purpose of expropriation and the effects of expropriation, and went to the prefectural expropriation committee several times. I remember the difficulties I had attending hearings without fully understanding the expropriation law, but I somehow managed to get permission, and the large parking lot was constructed and completed.
All the hard work is worth it when you see this parking lot still full of vehicles during the Sunflower Festival.
