JAPAN: Black Day at Narita Airport

Farmers and students thwart an embarrassed government

Everything was set for the long-delayed opening—five years late—of Japan's sparkling $2.4 billion New Tokyo International Airport at Narita, 40 miles northeast of the capital. The 114 shops and restaurants and nine banks in the terminal complex were polished and ready for business. The 32 airlines that would use the new facility prepared to switch 150 flights a day from older, overtaxed Haneda airport across Tokyo Bay. In a nation where tradition and superstition still count as much as technology, a taian, or auspicious day, had...