The central government and the U.S. military have jointly paid compensation for lung ailments suffered by two Japanese former workers exposed to asbestos at the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture, a civic group said Thursday.

The Defense Facilities Administration Agency and the U.S. Navy paid a combined 22 million yen to a relative of a worker who died two years ago at the age of 88 and 13 million yen to a 70-year-old man suffering from serious lung problems as a result of asbestos exposure at the base, said Takashige Ishida, director of the Kanagawa Labor Hazard and Occupational Illness Center, which is representing the victims.

Their names were not disclosed by the group, which helps people with occupational diseases and work-related injuries. The two men inhaled dust from asbestos insulation while working on U.S. warships at the base starting in the 1950s and developed pneumoconiosis, a lung disease that causes breathing difficulties and fatigue.