国賠、２６１億円に減額＝飛行差し止め認めず－第３次嘉手納爆音訴訟・福岡高裁支部

　米軍嘉手納基地（沖縄県嘉手納町など）の周辺住民約２万２０００人が米軍機による騒音で健康などの被害を受けたとして、国に夜間・早朝の飛行差し止めと損害賠償を求めた第３次嘉手納爆音訴訟の控訴審判決が１１日、福岡高裁那覇支部であった。大久保正道裁判長は賠償額を３０２億円とした一審判決を変更し、総額約２６１億円の支払いを命じた。
　飛行差し止めや将来分の賠償請求は一審同様認めなかった。米国政府を相手取り夜間・早朝の離着陸の禁止を求めた訴訟も、住民側の訴えを退けた。
　判決は、航空機騒音の程度を示す「うるささ指数」（Ｗ値）が７５以上の地域に住む住民について、Ｗ値に応じて１カ月当たり７０００～３万５０００円の賠償を命じた一審判決を変更。同４５００～２万２５００円に賠償水準を減額した。（2019/09/11-17:01）

A Japanese high court branch ordered the government on Wednesday to pay a total of some 26.1 billion yen in damages to residents near the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture, southernmost Japan, over noise pollution from aircraft using the base.
   The amount of damages is lower than the 30.2 billion yen set in a lower court ruling in February 2017.
   In the day's ruling, Fukuoka High Court's branch in Naha, Okinawa's capital, rejected the plaintiffs' requests for the suspension of night and early-morning flights at the base and compensation payments for future noise pollution, as a branch of Naha District Court did in the 2017 verdict.
   In the lawsuit, the residents, totaling some 22,000, claimed that they suffered health and other damage from noise emitted from planes taking off from and landing at the Kadena base.
   The high court branch ordered the Japanese government to pay between 4,500 yen and 22,500 yen per month to each of plaintiffs living in areas where aircraft noise levels register 75 or higher on the weighted equivalent continuous perceived noise level, or WECPNL, a gauge measuring aircraft noise, lower than the range of 7,000-35,000 yen in the lower court ruling.