Japan Press Weekly

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2015 April 1 - 7 [US FORCES]

US military conducts parachute drills in Tokyo for third consecutive month

The U.S. military conducted parachute training exercises for three consecutive months at the U.S. Yokota Air Base which is located in a densely populated area in western Tokyo.

A peace committee in Hamura City hosting the U.S. Yokota base announced that at around 3 p.m. on March 30, seven U.S. servicemen parachuted out of a C130 transport aircraft stationed at the base.

Japanese Communist Party member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Shimizu Hideko on the same day urged the Tokyo metropolitan government to request the central government and the Yokota base to stop the parachute landing drills.

In advance of the U.S. military’s parachute drills, on March 16, at a metropolitan assembly committee meeting, Shimizu pointed out that the Yokota base is surrounded by many houses, schools, and public facilities and that such a huge military base in an urban area is not allowed by law in the U.S. mainland. She stressed that Tokyo Governor Masuzoe Yoichi should call on the U.S. military to stop carrying out the dangerous parachute landing drills.