U.S. and Japanese troops jump from a C-130J Super Hercules over Yokota Air Base, Japan, on May 18, 2025. (Kendrick Jackson/U.S. Marine Corps)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — A U.S. Army paratrooper was forced to land in a Tokyo suburb Tuesday evening after drifting off course during parachute training, prompting a complaint from a local official.
The soldier, who had jumped from a C-130J Super Hercules, landed in Hamura city beyond the drop zone at Yokota, according to a statement emailed Thursday by the spokesman for U.S. Forces Japan, Air Force Col. John Severns.
The soldier deployed a backup parachute after the main chute failed, according to a Thursday news release from Fussa city citing information from the North Kanto Defense Bureau, a regional branch of Japan’s Ministry of Defense.
The paratrooper was not seriously injured, according to the release.
No one on the ground was hurt, a police spokesman in neighboring Fussa city said by phone Thursday. A witness called Fussa police at 4:37 p.m. Tuesday to report the incident.
The soldier landed on the roof of a home, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported Wednesday, quoting local police who would not confirm that detail to Stars and Stripes.
Hamura and Fussa are among several municipalities bordering Yokota, home to USFJ, 5th Air Force and the 374th Airlift Wing.
Hamura Mayor Hirotaka Hashimoto lodged a “strong complaint” Wednesday with the defense bureau. Bureau officials met with the mayor to apologize, according to a news released on the city’s website.
The Air Force is “committed to performing safe flight operations in the interest of our one community,” USFJ’s statement said. “We make every effort to minimize the impact to local communities while ensuring we maintain proficiency in our flight operations for the defense of Japan.”
The incident recalls a 2018 mishap in which part of a U.S. military parachute drifted onto a junior high school tennis court in Hamura, spurring the Air Force to suspend jump training over western Tokyo.
AloJapan.com