Low flying jets in Tokyo disturb residents in run up to Olympics

Record ID: 1460452

  • Title: Low flying jets in Tokyo disturb residents in run up to Olympics
  • Date: 25th February 2020
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (FEBRUARY 23, 2020) (REUTERS) MEMBER OF LOCAL RESIDENT GROUP AGAINST HANEDA AIRPORT'S NEW APPROACH ROUTES SPEAKING BANNER READING (Japanese): "WITHDRAW LOW-ALTITUDE FLIGHT" GROUP COLLECTING LOCAL PEOPLE'S OPINIONS ABOUT NEW APPROACH ROUTE PERSON PUTTING A STICKER ON "NOT SURE" PERSON PUTTING A STICKER ON "UNACCEPTABLE" WOMAN WRITING SIGNATURE GROUP MEMBER HOLD
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2020 10:17
  • Keywords: Haneda international airport Japan Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games flight route
  • Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • City: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Society/Social Issues,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA003C23ZK8V
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As Tokyo prepares to greet overseas visitors to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in July, some city residents are upset about more than 100 low-flying jetliners a day that will bring some them to the city.
    From March 29 when a southerly wind blows over Japan's capital, 45 passenger planes an hour will descend low over Tokyo on two new airport approach routes that will fly as low as 300 meters above some neighbourhoods near the city's Haneda airport.
    "There's a lot of risk and little merit, few residents are happy," said Kiwami Omura, who heads the Haneda Problem Solving Project, a group trying to unite opposition groups in Tokyo's 23 wards. The government "is using the Olympics to push this plan, but the flights will continue when it’s over."
    The new approach routes over central Tokyo will add 39,000 flights a year, but the government says this will help boost Japan's economy by around $6 billion.
    Abe's government in August said it had "gained the understanding" of Tokyo residents. Yet, lawmakers in the Tokyo's Shinagawa ward close to Haneda continue to oppose the plan, asking for more stringent noise and safety measures and a commitment to vary the routes. "I believe the decision ignores what residents want," Jin Matsubara, an independent lawmaker in Japan's parliament and former government minister said ahead of a meeting with opposition group representatives.
    Omura and other activists next month will attempt to gather at least 7,000 signatures from Shinagawa residents, enough to allow them to ask the ward assembly to approve a referendum. Any referendum vote that rejected the new Haneda routes, would not, however, be enough to reverse the decision.
    (Production: Tim Kelly, Hideto Sakai)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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