Towns, cities in west Japan link up in fight against noisy low-flying US military aircraft

MATSUE -- Municipal governments in Shimane and Hiroshima prefectures are teaming up to ask the national government for solutions after noise from low flights by U.S. military aircraft training in western Shimane was confirmed 2,090 times in 2024, the most since a local council began tracking the issue in 2013.

A Shimane Prefecture council on countermeasures against the noise from the U.S. military craft, headed by Mayor Shoichi Kubota of the city of Hamada, intends to work with five municipalities in neighboring Hiroshima Prefecture to ask the national government to put a stop to the exercises. The council consists of the cities of Hamada, Masuda and Gotsu and the towns of Ohnan and Kawamoto.

According to the Shimane Prefectural Government's disaster prevention and crisis management division, which is an observer in the council, the Nishi-Chugoku mountain area which straddles the prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Yamaguchi are within the training territory for fighter jets at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The council was formed in 2013 to address the problem of continuous rumbles from low flights by U.S. aircraft. It has asked the national government to urge the U.S. military to stop the training, and has been measuring the noise at 16 locations in western Shimane.

According to the council, in 2024 noise of 70 decibels or higher, considered the level of a noisy city, was measured 2,090 times at 13 locations, surpassing the previous record of 2,076 times in 2022.

At a Feb. 10 council meeting in Hamada, Mayor Kubota said critically, "It is regrettable that local residents continue to suffer from the stress (of noise)."

Kubota last May visited the Hiroshima Prefecture city of Hatsukaichi, where the secretariat for an association of prefectural municipalities affected by U.S. military aircraft noise is located, and proposed a plan for the two prefectures to cooperate in the matter. The Hiroshima Prefecture association consists of the towns of Akiota and Kitahiroshima and the cities of Miyoshi, Hatsukaichi and Etajima.

The Shimane Prefecture council has adopted plans for the 10 mayors from both Shimane and Hiroshima to visit the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs around this May or June to request the end of the training exercises.

(Japanese original by Tatsuo Murase, Matsue Bureau)