On Sunday, residents for the city of Tokushima voted 102,759 to 9,367 against building a dam across the Yoshino River on the island of Shikoku, 500 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of Tokyo. It heated up Tuesday when Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi outraged grass-roots activists by saying it was up to the construction minister, who had called the referendum a "malfunction," to decide whether to proceed with the dam.