A Japanese court has ordered the government to pay 754 million Japanese Yens (USD 6.1 million) in damages to people living around a major US airbase on the southern island of Okinawa over aircraft noise there, a report says.

The Okinawa branch of the Naha District Court ordered the restitution on Thursday.

Around 2,200 claimants, residing near the Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Ginowan in Okinawa Prefecture, northeast of the city of Naha, complained of mental and emotional suffering afflicted by aircraft noise from the base, which had disrupted their sleep and daily lives.

According to lawyers, the complainants filed their lawsuit against the state in seeking about 1 billion Yens (USD 8.1 million), saying they had a fear of aircraft crashes.

In 2004, a US marine helicopter crashed on the campus at Okinawa International University, which is located next to the Futenma base, injuring three crew members.

The Japanese court’s ruling comes as thousands of Okinawans sternly oppose the construction of an alternative US base on reclaimed land as an extension of the US military’s existing Marine camp in northeastern Okinawa, associating it with noise, pollution and crime. In 1996, the United States and Japan agreed to replace the existing Futenma base because it is in a populated area of Okinawa. However, it was stalled due to the residents’ fierce disagreement.

In a similar case in July 2010, the Fukuoka High Court ordered the government to pay about JPY 369 million (USD 3 million) in damages to the plaintiffs, who filed another lawsuit in October 2002.

Okinawa residents, who have demonstrated in several protest rallies against the presence of the US airbase on the island, have long resented the fact that they suffered the US military presence on Okinawa and occasional crimes committed by US troops.

Most islanders, scarred by a devastating nuclear attack by the US during World War II, are critical of their government which hosts tens of thousands of US troops and US military facilities occupying about 18 percent of the island’s area.

MIS/NN/GHN