Eight people owning land used by the U.S. military in Okinawa on Thursday appealed a court's rejection of their argument that the Japanese government's expropriation of the land violates the Constitution.

They appealed to the Naha branch of the Fukuoka High Court the Nov. 30 Naha District Court ruling that the expropriation and lease of land to the U.S. forces is legal despite the Constitution's guarantee of individual property rights, their lawyers said.

But the district court ordered the state to pay 470,000 yen in damages to Shoichi Chibana, 53, an antimilitary activist and assemblyman from Yomitan village who owns part of the land where the U.S. Navy's Sobe Communications Site sits.

The court dismissed damages demanded by seven others.

The eight demanded the state pay a total of 100 million yen in compensation.