[Structural Deconstruction #021] Public Water Sources vs. The Mysterious 🍍

The conflict between the public and the judiciary

Niseko Town, Hokkaido. The town is engaged in a desperate defensive battle to protect the water source that 80% of its residents—about 4,000 people—rely on.
However, the party they are fighting in court is publicly referred to only as a "company from Yamanashi Prefecture."
Its name—on the internet—is called "Niseko 🍍 Village."

This name does not appear in official town documents or major media reports.
This entity, remaining obscured, is cornering the town in the judicial arena as a "legitimate plaintiff."

The true identity of 🍍

Niseko 🍍 Village is a company registered in a single room of a one-story apartment complex in Kai City, Yamanashi Prefecture.
The representative is unknown from public information, the nature of the business is unknown, and the capital is unknown.
Only the address is recorded in the commercial registry, and a corporate number has been assigned.

A company whose actual operations cannot be verified is claiming ownership of the town's water source,
and it won the first trial (September 12, 2024, Sapporo District Court, Iwanai Branch).

What the judiciary is looking at is not the "public nature of water" but a formalistic argument regarding "whether there were defects in past sales contracts."
As a result, the town is being held liable for a chain of "documentary deficiencies," and the public water source is in danger of being seized by 🍍.

Why does 🍍 want the water source?

There is no visible intent for 🍍 to develop it themselves. There are three conceivable motives.

1. Securing asset value
   Local governments will always need water sources. Just holding onto one becomes a "negotiation card."

2. Resale route
   A receptacle for reselling at a high price to foreign capital or resort developers.
   It is not uncommon for a company with no real substance to stand at the forefront while a true buyer waits in the background.

3. Suspicion of being a front company
   The possibility that while it is a Japanese corporation on the surface, foreign capital exists behind it, functioning as a "window company" to bypass regulations.

In other words, they are claiming ownership not to "protect the water," but to "negotiate with the water as a hostage."

The information gap between the town and its residents

The town does not disclose the name of the company it is suing. In parliamentary documents and public relations, it is written only as a "company from Yamanashi Prefecture."
Meanwhile, residents and supporters are naming "Niseko 🍍 Village" on social media and blogs, expanding signature campaigns.

What appears here is a dual structure of "information the administration hides" and "information the residents expose."
The internet spreads names that cannot be officially released. The judiciary takes no notice of this.

The realistic limits of the constitutional amendment proposal

Sohei Kamiya, representative of the Sanseito party, appealed in his own post:

However, what is actually being questioned in court is not the "public interest," but the "formality of registration and contracts."
The judiciary does not look at ideals; it judges based solely on the legitimacy of documents.

If you want to protect the public interest, you need not abstract slogans from constitutional amendment proposals, but rather
the power to fight using institutional language—that is exactly what is required.

Conclusion

Niseko Town, which is trying to protect the water for its residents, is being forced into a legal battle with the mysterious "Niseko 🍍 Village."
Public interest is being cast aside, and only formalities are being judged.
The entity utilizing those formalities is a company registered to a single residential room in Yamanashi Prefecture.

The formalism of the judiciary, as a result, strengthens entities like the 🍍.
What the residents are trying to protect is "water," but what the judiciary is protecting is "paperwork."

And in the face of this reality, what is useful is not abstract constitutional amendment proposals with little hope of realization, but
our activities to deconstruct formalities and visualize structures itself.

However, these activities do not belong to us alone.
To protect public water, you, the reader, can also join in the action.

This link is the signature page officially promoted by the town.
"Who will protect the water?"—you can add yourself to that answer.