Vice foreign minister hears about U.S. military aircraft's low-flight training

Vice Foreign Minister Uetake Shigeo on December 7 heard from
representatives of the liaison council of local municipalities in Hiroshima
Prefecture about the U.S. forces' low-altitude flight training.

This hearing took place as a result of the related Diet questions by
Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Nakabayashi Yoshiko
in March.

Masuda Kunio, the Liaison Council's vice president and Geihoku Town
mayor, said that 1,262 low-altitude flights by U.S. forces took place
between April and September, including flights above primary schools. He
demanded that the central government investigate the actual circumstances of
such training.

Town Mayor Masuda handed the vice foreign minister some compositions
written by primary school children complaining about the noise nuisances of
the training exercises and asking Japan's prime minister to stop the U.S.
training. The children wrote that they are really scared and cannot
concentrate on studying.

The vice foreign minister said he wanted to visit the region affected by
U.S. low-altitude flights himself. (end)