TOKYO, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- A court in Japan handed down a ruling Thursday ordering the state to pay 558 million yen (4.7 million U.S. dollars) in damages to residents in the area over excessive noise from aircraft at the Iwakuni base which is jointly used by the U.S. military and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.
But while the Iwakuni branch of the Yamaguchi District Court ordered the unprecedented penalty for excessive noise at the base to the residents in the locale in western Japan, calls for the suspension of overnight flights and flights in the early morning from the Air Station Iwakuni were rejected by the district court.
More than 650 residents living near the base, which is set to become the largest U.S. base in East Asia over the next couple of years, filed the law suit in 2009 with lawyers seeking compensation to the tune of 1.8 billion yen for the residents' prior exposure to excessive noise and a further 23,000 yen in compensation payable monthly per person for future noise that would have to be endured.
The plaintiffs also petitioned the central government to suspend some of the flights from the base, sources close to the matter said Thursday, and called for U.S. fighter jets flying to Iwakuni from the Atsugi base near Tokyo that are involved in aircraft carrier maneuvers to be canceled, as well as a blanket ban on flights from the notorious, accident-prone MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircrafts.
These demands were shut down however, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga telling a press briefing after the ruling that the government, "Would like to make an appropriate decision regarding the next move after reviewing the ruling thoroughly,"with Japan's top government spokesperson adding that the central government remained committed to lightening the burden of base hosting towns and cities.
But while the plaintiffs' compensation fell a little short of the original lawsuit, Presiding judge Hiroshi Mitsuoka fully acknowledged in handing down his verdict that the residents in the vicinity of the airbase had "suffered psychologically and sustained health damage," and according to local media reports accepted that even the residents' ability to hold a basic conversation or sleep had been severely disrupted by the level of noise from the aircrafts.
The plaintiffs' top lawyer said the ruling was somewhat disappointing, but was nevertheless a big step towards eliminating noise at the airbase, which shares its functions with commercial planes as well.
While similar cases have been wholly dismissed by district courts, Thursday's ruling has garnered a lot of attention from other civic groups and residents living in the vicinity of noisy airbases, particularly as the upcoming realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, as per a prior bilateral agreement between Tokyo and Washington, while aimed at reducing Japan's base hosting burdens, will see some bases inherit significantly more aircraft.
Such will be the case at Iwakuni, which is expected to receive an additional 59 fighter jets from the Atsugi base. The likelihood of future flights being suspended will, according to those with knowledge of the matter, however, not be made by district courts, and will have to be handled at a state level.
