after the discovery of water pollution, inspection of an American military base

On Friday, December 20, the Japanese authorities carried out a «inspection» at a US military airbase in Tokyo after discovering in October that potentially carcinogenic chemicals had leaked from the site, a Japanese government spokesperson said.

Officers from several institutions, including the Ministry of Defense and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, conducted a “on-site inspection” at the Yokota base in the Japanese capital, Fumitoshi Sato said.

“This inspection was conducted in response to concerns from local residents, and we will continue to work with Washington”he added during a press conference. Contacted by AFP, Yokota Air Base was not immediately available for comment.

Eternal pollutants

In October, Tokyo was informed by the American army that water containing “perfluorooctanesulfonic acids” (PFOS) had been released from the firefighting training area on the base, Sato said. These «PFOS» are synthetic chemical components belonging to the category of PFAS, nicknamed “eternal pollutants” because, failing to degrade easily, they accumulate in the air, soil, rivers and in the human body.

These substances are classified internationally as “persistent organic pollutants” under the Stockholm Convention, and considered “potentially carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization (WHO). The United States’ military presence in Japan regularly arouses discontent among the local population – a recurring frustration on the southern island of Okinawa, where half of the 50,000 American troops deployed in the country are located.

Complaints

This island, which represents only 0.6% of Japanese territory, is strategically located east of Taiwan, a point of friction between the United States and China. In 2012, the United States announced that it would redeploy 9,000 Marines stationed in Okinawa, whose inhabitants complain of excessive nuisances generated by military activities, particularly linked to noise pollution and helicopter accidents.

Episodes of PFAS water pollution have also been blamed on the American bases on Okinawa. Late last week, the transfer operation began with a logistics support detachment of approximately 100 Marines from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.