Japan Govt Ordered to Pay Damages in Yokota Base Noise Suit

November 30, 2018

Tokyo--Tokyo District Court's Tachikawa branch on Friday ordered the Japanese government to pay a total of 95.6 million yen in compensation to residents living near the Yokota base in western Tokyo over past noise pollution caused by aircraft of the U.S. military and Japan's Self-Defense Forces using the base.

"The noise damage goes beyond socially tolerable limits," said Presiding Judge Tadashi Mikome.

But the judge rejected the residents' petition to suspend flights.

The plaintiffs were 144 residents of six cities and a town in Tokyo and neighboring Saitama Prefecture. Many of them are living in areas with aircraft noise levels of 75 or higher on the weighted equivalent continuous perceived noise level, or WECPNL, an internationally recognized measurement of aircraft noise.

They demanded that the government pay monthly damages of 20,000 yen per person. Mikome pointed out that the government has repeatedly been sued on this issue since 1976.

"The government has failed to take drastic measures to prevent noise pollution, neglecting the issue irresponsibly," the judge said.

He thus recognized a need for the government to compensate residents of areas with noise levels of 75 or higher, with monthly payments ranging from 4,000 yen to 12,000 yen depending on the noise level.

Meanwhile, Mikome concluded that the petition from the residents to suspend flights of SDF aircraft in a civil lawsuit is not legally appropriate and that the Japanese government was not in a position to regulate U.S. military aircraft operations.

The residents demanded that the government pay damages for future noise pollution as well, claiming that they will bear the burden of filing repeated lawsuits unless measures such as flight suspensions are implemented.

The ruling, however, did not recognize a need for future payments, on the basis that the issue of whether the government should compensate residents should be judged after damages are actually caused.

In the fourth similar lawsuit over noise from the Atsugi air base in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, a Supreme Court ruling in 2016 rejected flight suspension orders for SDF aircraft issued by lower courts.

The top court also dismissed a lower court ruling ordering the government to compensate for future noise damage, only finalizing the compensation order for past pollution. Jiji Press