from Japan Today
About 480 people living near the U.S. Marine Corps’ Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture filed a damages suit Monday against the Japanese government, seeking some 540 million yen in compensation for noise from U.S. military aircraft as well as a ban on some of their flights. A series of lawsuits have been filed over aircraft noise around U.S. military bases in Japan, such as the Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture and the Kadena base in Okinawa Prefecture, but it is the first such case involving the Iwakuni base.
The 476 plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit with the Yamaguchi District Court’s Iwakuni branch, live in an area where the noise level as measured by an international environmental index for airplane noise exceeds the standard for a residential area. The noise registers 75 or higher on the Weighted Equivalent Continuous Perceived Noise Level index. Under the Japanese government’s environmental standards, the noise level should be at 70 or lower in residential areas and at 75 or lower in commercial and industrial districts.
Besides seeking compensation for noise pollution, the plaintiffs are calling for U.S. military aircraft and Japanese Self-Defense Forces planes to stop such activities as nighttime takeoffs and landings and circling above the urban district area, according to the written complaint. The complaint also demands the cancellation of a planned relocation of U.S. carrier-borne fighter jets to Iwakuni from the Atsugi base, located in a densely populated area outside of Tokyo.
No comments:
Post a Comment