Japan Press Weekly

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2014 July 16 - 22 [US FORCES]

Noise pollution of military aircraft at US Yokota base increases

Residents living near the U.S. Yokota air base in western Tokyo are suffering from the noise pollution of military aircraft much more than before and are raising voices of concern and anger.

During the period between April 2013 and March 2014, a noise monitoring device, which Fussa City placed at the south of the base, recorded noise levels exceeding 70 dB 11,137 times, up by 3,061 times from a year earlier. For the first year in the last ten years, more than 10,000 excessive noise levels were recorded there.

At the north of the base, a recording device used by Mizuho Town recorded excessive noise levels by military aircraft 9,591 times, an increase of 1,071 times from the previous year.

A new U.S. military strategy, which puts more emphasis on the Asian region and a larger role to be played by the Yokota base, has been a causal factor in the increase in noise pollution and disruption to local residents’ livelihoods.

Tsuruta Kazutada, who heads a residents’ group calling for the removal of the Yokota base, commented as follows:

Recently, U.S. military transport airplanes are flying to the Yokota base at low altitudes using new routes. People in the neighboring municipalities of Akiruno City and Hinode Town are expressing comments such as, “Do they really need to fly at such low altitudes?” The U.S. military never listens to us. I feel anger about them ignoring residents’ voices.