Residents near the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa protest against aircraft noise pollution.

The Okinawa branch of the Naha District Court, however, turned down a request by the residents to ban nighttime flights at the largest U.S. air base in East Asia.

The court rejected the government's argument that the redress should be lessened as the residents chose to live around the base, knowing it would be noisy.

The plaintiffs included four who were diagnosed by the prefecture with some hearing loss due to noise. Presiding Judge Kyoji Iida, however, said the court could not establish a causal link between the noise pollution and their hearing problems, dismissing a claim made in a 1999 prefectural report that attributed their hearing loss chiefly to aircraft noise.

The court awarded 3,881 residents from six municipalities around the base a combined ¥2.8 billion, far less than the ¥16 billion sought in the suit, which was filed in March 2000.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they intend to appeal.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 26, 2005
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