Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2020 July 15 - 21 [US FORCES]

JCP Miyamoto protests against US military swim-fin drop accident

Japanese Communist Party Dietmember Miyamoto Toru on July 14 urged the Defense Ministry to file with the U.S. military a protest against a recent accident where a swim fin fell on a residential area during parachuting drills at the U.S. Yokota Base in western suburban Tokyo.

At around 7:30 p.m. on July 7, when the U.S. military was conducting parachute landing training, one of the jumpers accidentally dropped a swim fin. The fin was later found near a train station close to the Yokota base. This was the second U.S. military-related drop accident following the one involving an unopened parachute which local residents witnessed five days earlier. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government and governments of six municipalities near the base have condemned the frequent recurrence of accidents.

In a meeting with Defense Ministry officials on July 14, Miyamoto said, “A potentially life-threatening accident happened yet again.” Criticizing the Defense Ministry as overly tolerant of U.S. military-related accidents, the Tokyo-elected JCP Lower House member demanded that the ministry lodge a protest against the drop accidents and urge the U.S. military to stop carrying out parachute landing drills at Yokota Air Base.

In response, ministry officials just said that the ministry still did not lodge a protest with the U.S. forces and that it is waiting for the U.S. military to provide detailed information about not only the latest accident but also the previous one.

Residents and JCP assembly members in Yokota base-hosting municipalities accompanied Miyamoto. They said, “Not protesting is tantamount to overlooking the accidents.”

Past related article:
> US military parachute falls outside Yokota base in Tokyo [July 3, 2020]