The Yokohama District Court on Wednesday rejected a request for an injunction against nighttime and early morning flights at Atsugi Air Base in Kanagawa Prefecture that the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military jointly use.
Presiding Judge Nobuhiro Okada at the district court rejected the request regarding SDF and U.S. military aircraft, filed by some 8,700 residents in eight cities around the base, which straddles the Kanagawa cities of Yamato and Ayase.
But the judge ordered the state to pay roughly ¥5.9 billion in damages to the plaintiffs over past noise pollution linked to the base. He denied a damages claim for future noise pollution.
The lawsuit, the fifth of its kind, focused on changes in levels of base-related noise since U.S. carrier-based aircraft were relocated to the Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
The plaintiffs had argued for a review of the practice of assessing noise pollution using a loudness index designed for aircraft noise, which has become standard for similar lawsuits.
They had said that what is called the day-evening-night sound level, or Lden, standard adopted in Japan in 2013 shows that noise from military aircraft has been underrepresented compared with noise from civilian airplanes, and that noise pollution has continued even since the relocation of the U.S. carrier-based aircraft. They demanded damages payments of ¥46,000 per person per month.
The government had responded that noise pollution has been reduced thanks to the U.S. aircraft relocation and the SDF's adoption of planes with relatively lower noise levels.
In the previous fourth lawsuit, district and high courts ruled in favor of an injunction against nighttime and early morning flights by SDF aircraft. In 2016, however, this was overturned by the Supreme Court, which found that operations of SDF aircraft were highly public in nature and also dismissed the high court order for damages linked to future noise.
"I'm furious that the court didn't suspend flights of (SDF aircraft) when the ruling of the fourth lawsuit did so," said Tamotsu Takaku, 80, one of the plaintiffs. "The court has no regard for noise pollution victims."
The plaintiffs said they plan to appeal.
Lawyer Mamoru Fukuda, who heads the plaintiffs' legal team, also criticized the ruling, saying it "lacked the attitude to hear what (the plaintiffs) have to say."
Kanagawa Gov. Yuji Kuroiwa issued a statement, urging the government to take the noise pollution damages seriously.
"It doesn't change the fact that there are victims of noise pollution that is above the level people can tolerate," he said.
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