Japan Press Weekly

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2023 November 8 - 14 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Miyamoto at Yokota AB: US forces should accept Japan’s request for PFAS on-site investigation

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Miyamoto Toru on November 9 visited the U.S. Yokota Air Base, headquarters for the U.S. Forces Japan, and urged USFJ officers, LTC Marcus Morgan and Dr. Nicholas Carlton, to accept a request for investigations regarding PFAS contamination.

This is the first time that a JCP parliamentarian, not as a member of a Diet delegation, entered the Yokota base.

Miyamoto pointed out that more and more residents in Tokyo’s Tama region where the Yokota base is located have become worried about PFAS contamination on the grounds of events such as one that high level of hazardous substances have been detected in blood tests.

Miyamoto noted that trainings involving PFAS-containing firefighting foams have been held at the Yokota base, and that PFAS leakage incidents have occurred at the base. He said that residents living near the base express concern that the Yokota base may be one of the major contamination sources.

The JCP lawmaker asked the U.S. officers if they recognize the base as a potential contamination source. He referred to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rule requiring polluters to clean up PFAS-contaminated sites, and requested that the U.S. military in Japan take proper measures.

Miyamoto also demanded other actions including distributing to residents living near the Yokota base information when a leak of firefighting foams occurs; maintaining records of fire-fighting drills using PFAS-containing foams and conducting investigations of soil contamination around the base; and accepting requests for on-site inspections from the Japanese government as well as from Yokota base-hosting municipal governments.