Gov't ordered to pay Y610 mil damages over noise problem at U.S. Yokota base

Yokota has been there since 1940, so the people that have recently moved there since should have known there was noise from jets, they could have chosen to live elsewhere, cant be more than a handful of people still alive from day 1?

But yea I guess the US should pack up all their stuff and get out of JAPAN and let the JAPANESE deal with North Korea themselves! LOL

a win for middle-class NIMBYs.

Compare this ruling with this ruling only yesterday.

"A Japanese court on Tuesday ordered the government and the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant to pay 500 million yen to thousands (3,800) of former area residents who were demanding compensation for their livelihoods lost in the 2011 nuclear crisis."

I'm stumped by J court rulings sometimes.

Yokota has been there since 1940, so the people that have recently moved there since should have known there was noise from jets, they could have chosen to live elsewhere, cant be more than a handful of people still alive from day 1?

Doesn't matter when they lived there. Why should they move because of a foreign occupier?

But yea I guess the US should pack up all their stuff and get out of JAPAN and let the JAPANESE deal with North Korea themselves! LOL

Your scaremongering latter day colonial justifications won't work.

Of course Americans are welcome and much loved here. But not the imperialism and assertions of strength.

Those that attempt to do so are not guests but occupiers.

"Forcing residents to bear more burden is harsh. We may end up spending a lifetime in legal battles. Future damages should be accepted so as to lighten the burden."

Maybe don't move next to a military base next time?

Toasted Heretic: "Doesn't matter when they lived there. Why should they move because of a foreign occupier?"

It most certainly DOES matter if they moved into the area with the foreign "occupier" already there.

"Your scaremongering latter day colonial justifications won't work."

And you're saying Japan is a colony, which it clearly is not. The Japanese government works with US forces for joint defence. The US gave back Okinawa, which it didn't have to, in the '70s.

"Those that attempt to do so are not guests but occupiers."

Actually, they are not doing so. You are insisting they are. Huge difference.

The occupiers and their supporters will always insist that theirs is a benign force. A force for protection.

The British tried that one as well. Their empire is over.

Military base or no; this land belongs to the Japanese people. Not the American occupying forces.

Give me a break! Trains, Planes and Automobiles all make noise. The JSDF uses Yokota as well. I live next to an Air Force Base and International Airport, maybe I should sue the various airlines and the Air Force for....dear god!....flying.....the horror!

Toasted Heretic: "Military base or no; this land belongs to the Japanese people. Not the American occupying forces."

So, if it were a Japanese military base making all the noise and not an "Imperialistic Occupying Foreign Invasion Force Working Against the Nation" it would be okay? After all, I thought this was about excessive noise, not an imagined colony.

Can the government please pay me for their "cam-pain-ing" noise they make?

So, if it were a Japanese military base making all the noise and not an "Imperialistic Occupying Foreign Invasion Force Working Against the Nation" it would be okay? After all, I thought this was about excessive noise, not an imagined colony.

No, it would be just as annoying. I speak from experience.

Anyway; the Japanese have a right to have bases in their own country. What right does the US?

They should also be paying for upgrades for sound-proofing the residential areas as well. The Defense Ministry pays for windows and additional sound-proofing down here, they can do the same up there as well!

They should also compensate for added electricity costs related to keeping windows shut and people needing to use A/C in summer!

Duh.

When the vassal state's resident start asking their overlord's rights.

Intrigued. Please elaborate.

As for the noise and inconvenience those military bases caused, deal with it.

I try. Doesn't mean I have to accept it.

Or prepare to be demonized by western media.

Prepared and have been for aeons.

Toasted, you do not seem to have read the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty:

ARTICLE X

This Treaty shall remain in force until in the opinion of the Governments of Japan and the United States of America there shall have come into force such United Nations arrangements as will satisfactorily provide for the maintenance of international peace and security in the Japan area. However, after the Treaty has been in force for ten years, either Party may give notice to the other Party of its intention to terminate the Treaty, in which case the Treaty shall terminate one year after such notice has been given.

/snip

Japan can tell the USA to leave away from this blessed land any time they want to; in actual fact, they very much want the US military here.

There's a common trait in a series of the court rulings, starting from the Dec. 8, 2016 Atsugi Air Base court ruling, Feb. 23, 2017 Kadena Air Base ruling, down to yesterday's Yokota Air Base court ruling. 

Plaintiffs have won damages for noise pollution but lost a suit to halt night-time and early morning take-offs and landings of aircraft. The government must pay for past damages in the amount of 8.2 billion yen for Atsugi plaintiffs, 30.2 billion yen for Kadena plaintiffs and 610 million yen for Yokota plaintiffs. But the court ruled that the government will not have responsibility for future damages. In other words, U.S. aircraft (and some SDAF aircraft at Atsugi and Yokota) can land and take off without any constraint on time limit.

Blattamexiguus says he is stumped by Japanese court rulings. But his befuddling should be directed to the fact that the defendant, the democratic Japanese government, represents the Japanese people, whereby one can safely say Japanese taxpayers must pay plaintiffs the damages caused by U.S. aircraft. What a strange bilateral relation this is between Japan and the U.S.! One cannot explain this without supposing Japan is a subservient vassal of the great United States.

This is EXACTLY why the US bases are in Okinawa. NOWHERE ELSE in Japan would put up with it!

Every country has “Noice Abadment” laws and most all realistate in areas around civilian Air Ports and Military Air Facilities/ Bases that operate AC are designated as such by GOJ and the SOFA with GOJ. However this is entirely an internal GOJ problem.

I love that the article leaves out the fact that Yokota is a joint base (used by JASDF, and the USAF). The same goes with Atsugi, Iwakuni, and Misawa.

I've worked and lived on US Air Force bases for the last 26 years, and am at Yokota now. Yokota is probably the quietest base I have ever been at. I spent four years in Misawa and the F-16s are much much louder there than the aircraft here at Yokota. I'm curious as to what the level of noise pollution is around some of the airports here with significant air traffic such as Haneda? Are the residents in that area protected from aircraft noise levels? Are they asking for early morning and later night flights to be cancelled? Are they seeking compensation for noise pollution? If not, this seems more like extortion than realistic noise complaints.

Every resident should then receive ¥4000 a month in Bosozoku Harassment payments.

Its a joke that these punks can do whatever they want. I bet you the first day a foreign Bosozoku group forms will be the day it becomes illegal.

I don't see an issue to having aircraft fly only between 9am and 9pm. Obviously for invasion and humanitarian needs, these times can be extended, so why not implement? As another poster stated, such has already been implemented in other places.

@voiceofokinawa. You completely missed my point.

I was comparing the compensation awarded to Fukushima evacuees who having lost absolutely everything, were awarded a paltry 500mil between almost 4000 plaintiffs. And the compensation awarded to a group who have lost some sleep getting 650mil between around 1000 plaintiffs.

Basicaly same defendent. what seems fair about that?

Anyway; the Japanese have a right to have bases in their own country. What right does the US? yes they have a right to vote for a government that policies include the the removal of US bases in Japan, currently US bases are here at the invitation on the Japanese goverment , a government that the Japanese people voted for, funny how democracy works. If certain groups want the bases gone I suggest you get on the campaign trail. good luck

Some people think about money than the real noise around, may be a plot for that. I lived very closed the airport and the only think I didn't have to pay was NHK, but I knew for the noise of planes the apartment room rent was cheaper. Did I say anything wrong?

Comparing Haneda to Yokota? There are no people living on either ends of any of the Haneda runways. Departing commercial aircraft are probably 4,000'MSL before they're close to a residential area.

The base has been there since WWII.

That's like buying a bicycle with no seat and then suing because your butt hurts.

Blattamexiguus,

It seems I missed your point.  Sorry.

As you say, it's really unfair that 4,000 Fukushima plaintiffs are paid 500 million yen for the damages caused by Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant (per capita compensation: 125,000 yen) while 1,000 Yokota plaintiffs are paid 650 million yen for the noise pollution caused mostly by U.S. aircraft (per capita compensation: 650,000 yen). In the case of Kadena, 22,000 plaintiffs were paid compensations in the total amount of 3,009 million yen (per capita compensation: 1,372,000 yen).

There’s something smacking of intrigues here. Damages derived from U.S. bases are compensated handsomely to  have them operate without any hitch at all. In other words, courts in Japan are an integral part of the political entity to sustain Japan (Okinawa, in particular) as a permanent U.S. military colony.

Helicopter crashed today in Okinawa, 3 ospreys in a month...bases shouldn't be in residentional areas in a country with so many islands. The effect of noise pollution has been proven to torture or limit citizens lifespan.

Shows up just how much short shrift Fukushima victims have been given

I bet you the first day a foreign Bosozoku group forms will be the day it becomes illegal.

I've seen how American GIs behave in Okinawa. How they act towards women and generally make a nusisance of themselves. But like the equally annoying biker gangs; I'm sure not all of them act like idiots.

One day, Japan will be free from the war machine. One fine day.

I think the US military in all of Japan should all pack up and leave Japan for 2 months and let the people of Japan see and know what is their purpose in Japan. Especially with that dic-tator across the way there.

Especially with that dic-tator across the way there.

Trump won't last the course.

I think the US military in all of Japan should all pack up and leave Japan for 2 months and let the people of Japan see and know what is their purpose in Japan.

It would be nice to have that choice, yes. I think most of us here know what our purpose is. Being threatened that "bad things will happen to us" shouldn't phase us.