2010 Volume 3 Issue 2 Pages 26-37
This paper’s purpose is to reveal how much damage due to noise pollution by military aircraft the people around Yokota Air Base have incurred under the national security arrangements between the U. S. and Japan. To reveal this fact we use the social cost concept. In this paper we describe the situation with regard to noise pollution damage, set out the issues addressed in lawsuits for damages, and estimate the social cost. Consequently it is revealed that through old and new lawsuits concerning common damage from May 1973 to November 2004, plaintiffs were compensated for only 2.4% of the full amount of damage incurred. That is to say, the people around Yokota Air Base incurred an unaccounted cost of about 206 billion yen.
