The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down an appeal by residents near the Yokota air base in Tokyo to suspend early morning and night flights by U.S. military planes.
Although the residents were awarded some 3.25 billion yen in compensation for aircraft noise in a Tokyo High Court ruling in 2005, they appealed the ruling to the top court to seek a suspension of flights.
The Supreme Court is also considering an appeal by the government, which is dissatisfied with the high court's decision on compensation.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a ruling on that appeal May 29.
The top court is expected to change part of the high court ruling, which increased the amount of compensation the government must pay the residents from the 2.4 billion yen ordered by the Tokyo District Court in 2002.
In May 2002, the Hachioji branch of the Tokyo District Court ordered the government to pay about 2.4 billion yen to 4,763 residents, including those already deceased, in compensation for past noise.
The decision, however, dismissed the plaintiffs' demand that some flights be suspended on the grounds that this would be beyond the jurisdiction of the government.
The high court upheld the lower court's rejection of flight suspensions but raised the amount of compensation by about 800 million yen.