Japan Press Weekly

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2013 April 10 - 16 [US FORCES]

US aircraft flying exclusively in SDF airspace

It has come to light that U.S. Forces have been carrying out their flight training exercises in the airspace designated for training by the Self-Defense Forces.

Japanese Communist Party Upper House member Inoue Satoshi made this fact public on April 13 from materials he obtained from the defense ministry.

According to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, airspace for training exercises to be provided to the U.S. military is determined through negotiations in the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee. The training airspace for the SDF is not designated as airspace to be used for exercises by American aircraft.

The materials submitted by the ministry show the days and hours of U.S. warplanes’ flights in the 12 SDF training zones across Japan from January 2011 to February 2013.

Most of the training airspace is over the sea, but some areas spread over land in the Chugoku Mountains in the southwestern part of Honshu and Gunma Prefecture in central Honshu.

The “Area 567” running through the Chugoku Mountains is mainly used by aircraft stationed at the U.S. Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The number of flight training days in that area amounted to 211 in 2011, at least 191 in 2012, and 51 in 2013 at the end of February. The flight hours in this year reached 317 hours in only two months, more than five hours per day on average.

In Gunma Prefecture, carrier-based aircraft at the U.S. Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture frequently fly over an indoor bicycle racing stadium near the prefectural office, making the stadium their “target.”

Oda Akio, the head of the Gunma Peace Committee, said, “Those planes fly over densely populated areas. In many cases they make flights between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. I’m angry that they are taking no notice of the disruption caused to local residents.”

Inoue said, “It is serious that the Japanese government has overlooked this flagrant U.S. violation of Japan’s sovereignty. The U.S. Forces are planning to conduct further flight training exercises with the crash-prone Ospreys. We will work hard to put a stop to their dangerous flights over Japan.”