Japan pays for American noise pollution with US$466 million in lawsuit damages over aircraft nuisance

Japanese taxpayers have been footing the bill for noise pollution caused by American aircraft in dozens of compensation suits filed by people living close to US military bases.

Confirmation that the Japanese government has paid more than 70 billion yen (US$466 million) to people living near five US bases for the excessive noise generated by American aircraft came in an official response to an opposition politician on February 27, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

The request for information filed by Tomohiro Yara, of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, revealed that while Tokyo has asked the US to meet its compensation commitments, “there is no evidence that any payment of any kind has been made by the US government at this time”.

Masafumi Chinen, whose father fought a long-running lawsuit against the US Futenma Air Station in Okinawa prefecture, said local people had long believed that compensation payments were not being made by the US.

“People in Okinawa have not believed that for many years, but I think that most people in mainland Japan did not realise what was going on,” he told This Week in Asia.

“I’m angry, and I hope they are angry as well,” he said. “It is not fair that we have to live with the noise from the bases, and it is not fair that Japanese taxpayers are paying the compensation for the noise the US military makes.”

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He added that he was “not surprised” to hear that despite repeated requests from Tokyo for the US to pay its share of the compensation, no funds had been forthcoming to date.

The Chinen family was among more than 400 plaintiffs who filed a suit in 2002 asking that military flights