Gov't to compile its own measures to prevent U.S. military crimes

Kyodo News
Feb 16, 2008

TOKYO — Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura indicated Friday the government will compile measures possibly next week to prevent crimes by U.S. military personnel following the alleged rape of a junior high school girl by a U.S. Marine in Okinawa Prefecture.
Speaking to reporters and at a parliamentary committee session, Komura also said he intends to ask the United States to keep tighter control over its soldiers living off base.
"Preventing a recurrence of the crime should primarily be a matter of how the U.S. military shapes itself up. But as various ideas have been presented at the Diet, we will consider prevention measures without ruling them out," Komura told reporters.
The proposals floated so far include installing surveillance cameras in entertainment districts near U.S. military bases.
Komura indicated a flexible approach would be necessary where surveillance cameras are concerned, saying, "There are some local authorities that want to do that, while there are others that do not. We cannot force them."
He told a House of Representatives Budget Committee session earlier in the day that the government intends to demand that the U.S. military exercise stricter supervision over its soldiers living off base, using occasions such as the joint committee of foreign and defense officials to do so.
The U.S. military has taken measures to prevent incidents involving servicemen such as imposing curfews on those living on base. But Tyrone Hadnott, a Marine staff sergeant who allegedly raped a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa, lived outside Camp Courtney, where he was stationed.
However, Komura denied that the government will try to revise the Status of Forces Agreement to limit U.S. soldiers from living off base, telling the parliamentary committee, "It is impossible to stipulate in the SOFA that soldiers can only live on base." The agreement governs the operations of the U.S. military presence in Japan.
Komura also said the Japanese government is willing to work closely with a task force that the U.S. military has set up to deal with the allegation.
Meanwhile, Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, branded the government's position of ruling out any SOFA revision to deal with U.S. soldiers' crimes as "timid."
"When speaking of the Japan-U.S. alliance, both countries should stand on an equal footing. From that viewpoint, we must amend the SOFA expeditiously," Hatoyama told a press conference at DPJ headquarters.
In Okinawa, the Okinawa Bar Association released a statement the same day demanding that both the Japanese and U.S. governments take drastic measures to make sure serious crimes by U.S. soldiers will never happen again, such as integrating and reducing the number of U.S. bases in Japan.