Japan invested 253.3 billion yen in the Isahaya Bay reclamation project, which was completed in 2008. Launched in 1986 by the government through the Ministry of Agriculture, the project aimed to create new farmland and protect the region from flooding. A 7 km dike was fully closed on April 14, 1997, isolating the bay from the open sea. The project covered an area of 3,500 hectares, including a large freshwater reservoir of about 2,600 hectares. Farmers who settled behind the dike later filed a lawsuit in the Nagasaki court. Fishermen in the Ariake Sea claim the dike has damaged local ecosystems, particularly affecting nori algae and shellfish harvests. They also took their concerns to court. In 2010, the Fukuoka High Court ordered the government to open the dike’s gates for five years, and the government did not appeal, making the decision final. However, in 2013, the Nagasaki District Court, acting on behalf of the farmers, ruled against opening the gates. This created a legal dilemma for the state, as it now faces conflicting penalties: paying 10,000 yen per day per fisherman if the gates remain closed, later increased to 20,000 yen, and 490,000 yen per day if the gates are opened. If these penalties were to apply for a full year, the total cost would exceed 178 million yen. Until 2019, the government had paid 1.23 billion yen to the fishermen, which is less than 0.5 percent of the cost of the dike. A legal scholar from Sophia University in Tokyo explained that while the two court decisions do not conflict in legal theory, they clearly do from a social standpoint. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2019 and March 2023 that the gates would not be opened. The 2010 ruling was final, but the government never acted on it. The project has not been halted by natural forces or budget constraints, but by these conflicting judicial decisions. The 253.3 billion yen was fully spent, and the dike has stood since 2008. From the project’s start in 1986 to the 2023 ruling, 37 years have passed, with 26 of those years marked by a closed bay, despite a period when the courts had ordered the gates to be opened.