The japantoday article is, and is not accurate. Would have to look to see why it was written the way it was.
Evicting people in Japan is a BIG nono. Again, comes back to community. But if you look at local and bullet train lines, you will see they rip right through neighborhoods and towns, splitting them in half, with weird, curvy roads to get through and under the line to the other side. Taking peoples rice fields is 100% free game. Kicking people out of houses, not so much. So generally, new lines and existing lines ran through areas where they could take the land, without impacting the community, and went to excessive lengths to ensure that neighborhoods/towns they bifurcated could still function as before. It is largely all done with these things:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...sen_201408081002.jpg
that I cant remember the name of. It isnt a trustle... but like, a hm, i dunno. Someone knows the name of it probably. 
It demonstrates minimum land impact to ensure the route was executed on. Given that the MD maglev is also on piers like this, it is hard to see why it is such a huge deal here. The maglev project is in extensive collaboration with Japanese rail companies, but hey, we cant have nice things!
Re: US ED, look no farther than the mess the keystone? pipeline project was in before it was finally killed and burnt with fire.
The california rail project, land was seized, _but nobody is getting paid_. That isn't a very well organized project!
