Abstract
This paper analyzes the civic movement and litigations which opposed the construction of apartment buildings along the 'Daigaku Dori', the main street in Kunitachi City.
In these litigations, the court confirmed that the builders violated the neighbor's right to scenery, and ordered them to demolish a part of buildings.
I focus on three topics as follows. First, how did the civic movement develop into litigations? Second, how was the right to scenery recognized by court? Third, are there any problems about judicial decision-making?
I point out that, in the process of the movement, the neighbors widened their views and many experts helped them, so that this protest movement resulted in court action. And the right to scenery won the approval when the courts adopted a new legal theory.
However, I argue that this new right should not have been justified by the ambiguous customary law. In addition, the court should make efforts to estimate of worth of the scenery. The city planning law also should be reformed in order to rejuvenate citizen's participation.
