Japan Rethinks a Dam, and a Town Protests (Published 2009)

NAGANOHARA, Japan � The clatter of construction machinery still fills this forested mountain gorge, where legions of men in hard hats busily pour concrete, clear hillsides and erect a huge, unfinished bridge whose concrete supports tower over the valley floor like crucifixes in an immense graveyard. It seems an apt analogy. Japan’s new government has suspended the $5.2 billion Yamba Dam being buil