Japan, U.S. to review SOFA as U.S. military crime wave spikes in Okinawa

Japan and the United States will amend an archaic pact that governs the way U.S. military personnel and base-linked civilian workers are dealt with legally following rising instances of crimes committed by U.S. service people in Japan, local media quoted government sources as saying Monday.

According to Kyodo News, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and Lt. Gen. John Dolan, commander of the U.S. military in Japan, will announce the plans to revise elements of the the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) at a press conference on Tuesday.

The move comes as anti-U.S. sentiment on Okinawa Island, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan, has been rising exponentially in the wake of a series of crimes involving U.S. military-linked personnel including murder, rape, assault and a number of drunk driving cases.

Calls have been made from both the prefectural and central government for SOFA to be revised, particularly from the former, as the pact is overly-protective of American citizens and contains loopholes whereby U.S. offenders can dodge prosecution in Japan as the bases are under U.S. legal jurisdiction.

"Japan and the United States are currently reviewing the treatment of Americans subject to the agreement and we are making final arrangements to swiftly compile effective measures," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda was quoted as telling a press conference.

The current pact does not allow Japanese prosecutors to indict U.S. military-linked personnel if crimes were committed when the offender was on official duty and investigators are not granted access to U.S. military bases and facilities in Japan in the pursuit of offenders, meaning the bases effectively offer criminals immunity from Japanese law.

Also at odds under the current agreement is the issue of the definition of a "civilian component", which refers to American civilians working for the military, but does not fully explain the details of their employment conditions or arrangements.

Under the new review of SOFA, the ambiguous definition and scope of "civilian component" will be clarified, local media quoted government sources as saying Monday.

The inadequacy of SOFA, first inked in 1960, has been under the spotlight following Kenneth Franklin Shinzato murdering a 20-year-old local woman in April while he was working as a civilian at the U.S. Air Force's Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.

The murder and rape, for which Shinzato was indicted last week, sparked mass protests and outrage from both Okinawa's local citizens and officials and drew widespread condemnation from the mainland too.

It also amplified the islanders' calls for their base hosting burdens to be eradicated and the U.S. bases kicked off the tiny island, which accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan's total land mass.

The latest move to amend the pact follows yet another drink driving arrest occurring in Okinawa on Monday involving a U.S. military service person.

Okinawa prefectural police on Monday arrested a serviceman from Kadena Air Base on charges of drunk driving in Naha City.

Christopher Aaron Platte, a 27-year-old staff sergeant, was arrested after driving on a road in the town of Chatan. The suspect failed an on-the-spot breathalyzer test that was administered after he was pulled over for weaving along the road.

Monday's arrest follows a similar incident on June 26 when police arrested Francis Shayquan, 24, a shop clerk at Kadena Air Base, on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. Also in June, four American civilians at the Kadena base were arrested on drugs charges.

Prior to that, on June 4, Aimee Mejia, 21, a U.S. Navy worker, was charged with drunk driving after crashing her car head-on into two other cars and injuring two people as she sped the wrong way along a highway on the island.

Other incidents that have incensed both officials and citizens of Okinawa recently include the rape of a local women by a U.S. serviceman in a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa, and a brutal assault on a female Japanese student by a serviceman on a civilian flight from the U.S. to Japan. Endit