Okinawa: Japanese gov’t looks to tie improvement of U.S. forces agreement to Futenma relocation

Japan and the United States have agreed to revisit enforcement of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), possibly allowing Japanese courts to try American civilian workers for U.S. forces in Japan over on-duty crimes, with the Japanese government apparently hoping to get on Okinawa’s good side regarding the relocation of U.S. Air Station Futenma within the prefecture.

The two countries are nearing an agreement to allow Japanese courts to try U.S. servicemen or U.S. civilian employees in Japan over traffic accidents they cause under the influence of alcohol after official events.

The government hopes the move will be received as a step toward reducing Okinawa’s burden of hosting U.S. military bases. Foreign Minister Genba will meet with Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima during his visit to the southernmost prefecture on Nov. 25 and 26 to talk about the agreement.

Okinawa’s consent is necessary for the relocation of Futenma, but the inter-prefectural move has been met with sharp protests from the local community. The SOFA is also widely regarded in Okinawa as unfair to Japan, and though the central government appears to be trying to win over support from Okinawa with the possible change, it falls far short of fundamental reforms that Okinawans seek.

One issue holding the national government back from seeking larger changes is the idea that Washington may worry that if it agrees to revise the accord with Japan, then South Korea and member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) might also seek to have their respective status-of-forces agreements with the U.S. revised.

Genba said the government placed priority on winning consent from Washington to improve how the SOFA was enforced, rather than trying to get a revision of the pact.

Another top government official said, “It’s difficult to revise the accord because it’s a matter related to U.S. forces’ morale.”

Although in its manifesto for the 2009 general election the ruling Democratic Party of Japan pledged to propose revision of the bilateral SOFA, the issue remains deadlocked. (By Hirohiko Sakaguchi, Political News Department)

Mainichi Shimbun, November 25, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/11/25/20111125p2a00m0na005000c.html

---

 Okinawa: Japan indicts civilian employee at U.S. Air Force over fatal accident

NAHA, Japan (Kyodo) — Prosecutors in Okinawa on Friday indicted a civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force over a fatal vehicle collision in January, in the first application of newly agreed arrangements to conditionally give Japan more jurisdiction over crimes involving nonmilitary personnel at U.S. bases.

The indictment without arrest of Rufus James Ramsey III, a 24-year-old employee of the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, on charges of negligent driving resulting in death came after the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office reversed an earlier decision not to pursue the case.

Prior to Wednesday’s agreement to change the operational implementation of the Status of Forces Agreement, which governs the handling of U.S. service personnel in Japan, the United States had primary authority to try both military and nonmilitary U.S. personnel if they are suspected of committing crimes while on duty.

From now on, Japan can request the right to exercise jurisdiction in cases that cause death or severe injuries if the United States decides not to conduct any criminal prosecution and gives its consent to Japanese authorities to do so.

In line with the latest agreement, the Naha prosecutors filed a request for jurisdiction and received U.S. consent on Thursday.

The accident occurred in the city of Okinawa on the night of Jan. 12 when Ramsey’s vehicle swerved into the oncoming lane and struck a minivehicle driven by Koki Yogi, 19. Yogi died in the accident.

Acknowledging that some members of the public see Japan’s lack of jurisdiction as unfair, Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba told a press conference Friday that the Japanese government will make utmost efforts to “achieve results one at a time” under the new agreement and work to realize its promise of easing the base-hosting burdens on Okinawa.

Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima welcomed the indictment as “a certain degree of progress” in the Japanese and U.S. government’s response to local residents’ demands, while reiterating his prefecture’s call for fundamental revisions to the SOFA.

Similarly, Yogi’s mother, Manami Kamiya, said in a statement, “The Status of Forces Agreement must be amended so that trials of U.S. soldiers and nonmilitary personnel in this country are as a matter of course held in Japanese courts.”

Kamiya, 41, said she was to some extent “relieved” that Ramsey had been indicted, but also recalled the shock and anger she felt when she first learned that the U.S. side has only slapped a five-year driving ban on him without further punishment.

The prosecutors had initially decided in March not to indict Ramsey, who was a staffer at a store in the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Foster, as they concluded primary jurisdiction rested with the United States because he was deemed to have been on duty at the time.

But they reopened the case after an independent judicial panel of citizens, acting on a claim from the victim’s family, decided in May that the driver should be indicted because the prosecutors failed to investigate properly whether Ramsey had in fact been on duty or not.

Under the SOFA, Japan has the right to exercise jurisdiction if the suspected crime was committed while off duty.

Many residents in Okinawa and other parts of Japan that host U.S. bases have voiced their anger for many years about how drunken driving and other crimes involving U.S. civilian personnel have been handled.

Kyodo Press, November 25, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/11/25/20111125p2g00m0dm089000c.html

---

 Okinawa: Okinawa defense official removed from post over indiscreet remark

NAHA (Kyodo) — The government decided Tuesday to remove a senior Defense Ministry official from the post of chief of the Okinawa Defense Bureau after he came under fire for an indiscreet comment in connection with the government’s plan to relocate a key U.S. base in Okinawa Prefecture.

Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa announced the dismissal at a news conference after questioning the official, Satoshi Tanaka, about some media reports quoting him as using a Japanese term often interpreted as implying an act of sexual violence against women, in reference to a controversial government plan to relocate a U.S. military base within Okinawa.

The incident has displeased Okinawa at a time when the central government is asking the southwestern island prefecture, which has long hosted the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan, to agree to relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station.

The controversy stems from Tanaka’s comment during a drinking session with the media in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, on Monday night.

When asked why the government has never given a clear schedule for submitting to Okinawa an environmental impact assessment report, which might help move the relocation plan forward, participants quoted a drunken Tanaka as basically saying, “Do you declare that you are going to commit an act before you do so?”

He reportedly used the Japanese word “okasu,” whose meanings include to rape someone or to commit a crime.

Okinawa is especially sensitive to such comments given local protests spurred by the rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995.

Participants said Tanaka made the remark during a get-together at a Japanese-style pub in the presence of representatives from eight media outlets. Comments made during the gathering were considered off-the-record.

Both Ichikawa and Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, the top Japanese government spokesman, have said the central government will stick to its plan to submit the assessment plan by the end of this year.

The transfer of the Futenma base to the Henoko district in Nago from a densely populated area of Ginowan has been stalled because of strong opposition in Okinawa, which has long hosted the bulk of U.S. forces in Japan and wants the base moved outside the prefecture.

Despite the dismissal of Tanaka from the post, the impact of the latest incident on the Futenma issue is “immeasurable,” a senior Defense Ministry official said.

In Naha, officials including Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima have expressed strong displeasure over Tanaka’s comment.

Tanaka, who has also served as the Defense Ministry’s public relations chief, assumed the post as head of the Okinawa Defense Bureau on Aug. 15.

Kyodo Press, November 29, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/national/archive/news/2011/11/29/20111129p2g00m0dm127000c.html

---

 Okinawa: Okinawa furious over defense official’s rape remark

NAHA—Okinawan politicians and citizens expressed outrage over a remark about rape from a senior defense bureaucrat, widening the rift over the long-stalled relocation of a U.S. military base.

“I don’t feel like making any comment,” a grimaced Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima told reporters on Nov. 29, hours before Satoshi Tanaka, director-general of the Okinawa Defense Bureau, was dismissed over his remark. “My mouth would become tainted (if I made a comment).”

During a drinking session on Nov. 28, Tanaka reportedly asked, “Would you say, ’I will rape you,’ before you rape someone?” He was responding to a question about why the government has not made clear when it will submit an environment assessment report on the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture.

Okinawans said Tanaka’s remark symbolizes how the central government has discriminated against Okinawa, which hosts about 70 percent of U.S. military installations in Japan.

“This is what central government officials think as opposed to what they say. It reveals the quintessence of the relationship between Yamato (mainland Japan) and Okinawa,” said Suzuyo Takazato, 71, co-chair of the Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, a group formed after a girl was raped in Okinawa by three U.S. servicemen in 1995.

“The central government cajoles Okinawa with rhetoric and money and eventually dominates it with force. It is nothing but the logic of violence. In the remark, discriminations against women masterfully overlap discriminations against Okinawa.”

In announcing Tanaka’s dismissal on the night of Nov. 29, Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa reiterated that the government plans to submit an environment assessment report to the Okinawa prefectural government by the end of the year.

But even Defense Ministry officials acknowledged it would be difficult.

“The first thing we need to do is to put out this fire,” a senior ministry official said, referring to growing anger among Okinawans. “The new director-general will have to make a pilgrimage to offer apologies.”

A senior official at the Okinawa Defense Bureau also said: “It will be impossible to submit an environment assessment report by the end of the year. It will be delayed for months.”

An environment assessment report is required for the government’s plan to relocate the Futenma facility in Ginowan to Nago, also in Okinawa Prefecture, in accordance with a Japan-U.S. agreement.

Nakaima has been opposed to the government plan. He was re-elected in November 2010 by promising to relocate the U.S. military base outside the prefecture.

“Our confidence in the government has been shaken once again,” said Susumu Matayoshi, who heads the governor’s executive office in the prefectural government.

At an extraordinary session on Nov. 14, the Okinawa prefectural assembly unanimously adopted a statement calling on the central government to abandon any notion of submitting an environment assessment report.

“The remark came from the standpoint of the occupier, which forcibly carries out whatever it declares, ignoring the feelings and opinions of Okinawan residents,” said Mio Nakamura, a prefectural assembly member from the Social Democratic Party. “There is no way for Okinawa to accept an environment assessment report.”

The Nago city assembly also passed a similar statement with a majority vote on Nov. 29.

Women were angered by Tanaka’s insensitivity because sexual violence by U.S. servicemen was a serious problem even before Okinawa was reverted to Japan’s sovereignty in 1972.

“Okinawa has always been made light of by the government and taken as someone that can be raped,” said a 50-year-old company employee in Nago.

Nakaima will have to state his opinion within 90 days after the prefectural government receives an environment assessment report.

Still, the relocation will not move ahead unless he approves the Defense Ministry’s application for reclaiming Nago’s coastal area.

Many Okinawans said the government has given priority to the Japan-U.S. alliance at the sacrifice of Okinawa.

In a meeting in Honolulu on Nov. 12, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told U.S. President Barack Obama that Japan is preparing to submit an environment assessment report by the end of the year.

Asahi Shimbun, November 30, 2011
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201111300019

---