Eight Okinawa landowners filed an appeal Wednesday with the Supreme Court against a high court ruling denying them damages over the continued leasing of their land, against their will, to the U.S. military in line with a special law.
The plaintiffs, including Shoichi Chibana, an assembly member from the village of Yomitan who owns a parcel that is part of a U.S. Navy installation, are seeking 140 million yen from the state, arguing that the law violates the Constitution, which guarantees individual property rights.
The appeal follows a Nov. 7 ruling by the Fukuoka High Court. The latter overturned a lower court ruling ordering the government to pay Chibana some 470,000 yen for "illegally occupying" his land even after a property lease had expired in 1996.
Mirroring the lower court decision, the high court denied the claims of the other seven landowners on the grounds that the amended Special Land Use Law was enacted before their leases had expired.