[CPEO-MEF] PFAS, GLOBAL: "Pageantry of Power and Japan’s Hidden PFAS Crisis"

[Lenny Siegel <Lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Pageantry of Power and Japan’s Hidden PFAS Crisis 
Beneath the aircraft-carrier ceremony celebrating a “new golden age” in U.S.–Japan relations, ongoing toxic discharges from the Yokosuka naval base reveal a grimmer alliance—one built on secrecy, contamination, and a surrender of environmental sovereignty.

By Pat Elder 
Military Poisons
November 1, 2025

When President Donald Trump strode onto the flight deck of the USS George Washington at Yokosuka, Japan, it looked like a campaign scene, perhaps choreographed for his unconstitutional 3rd term bid. The imperial president, flanked by sailors and television cameras, praised the might of the U.S. armed forces and declared that “America is respected again.” Beside him, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke of “a new golden age” in the U.S.–Japan alliance, promising that Japan would take on a more “proactive” military posture to safeguard regional “stability.” Beneath the speeches and the steel hull, the waters of Tokyo Bay told another story—one of secrecy, ongoing contamination, and official denial. 

The Mayor Who Could No Longer Trust His Ally 

Just blocks from where Trump’s entourage gathered, Yokosuka Mayor Katsuaki Kamiji has spent three years confronting the consequences of American power. In 2022, the U.S. Navy quietly released data showing Per fluoro octanoic acid (PFOA) at 12,900 ppt and Per fluoro octane sulfonic acid (PFOS) at 8,592 ppt (parts per trillion) in industrial wastewater discharged from Fleet Activities Yokosuka. These concentrations are several hundred times Japan’s provisional guideline of 50 ppt for combined concentration PFOS + PFOA draining into surface water.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/trumps-yokosuka-spectacle-the-pageantry-of-power-and-japans-hidden-pfas-crisis

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)




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