The Yokohama District Court's May 21 ruling in a lawsuit filed by local residents seeking a ban on nighttime flights to and from Atsugi air base in Kanagawa Prefecture underlines the need for the government to launch serious negotiations with the United States to reduce the noise from the operation of U.S. military aircraft.
In the landmark ruling, the court determined that local residents around the Atsugi base, which straddles the cities of Yamato, Ayase and Ebina, suffer from excessive aircraft noise and ordered the government to suspend nighttime flights by Maritime Self-Defense Force aircraft from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. It was the first court ruling to suspend flights of Self-Defense Forces aircraft since residents living near air bases around the country started taking legal action against aircraft noise in the 1970s.
However, the ruling rejected the plaintiffs' call for grounding aircraft of the U.S. Navy, which jointly uses the Atsugi air base with the MSDF, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.