Okinawa to survey U.S. service personnel living outside bases

Kyodo News
Feb 16, 2008

NAHA — The Okinawa prefectural government plans to begin next week surveying the number and circumstances of U.S. service personnel living outside local military bases in the wake of the arrest of a U.S. Marine on suspicion of raping a teenage girl, prefectural officials said Saturday.

Concern among local people has risen as U.S. personnel living off base are believed not to be under restrictions on going out and other activities, unlike those living within military facilities.

The U.S. military has taken measures to prevent incidents involving servicemen living on base such as imposing curfews.
The central government plans to ask the U.S. side to tighten control over service personnel living off base.

Okinawa Gov Hirokazu Nakaima envisions making the number and circumstances of off-base U.S. service personnel a major survey topic of a prefectural government task force to be set up early next week, the officials said.

U.S. military authorities have told the prefectural government that some 6,000 off-base housing units were registered for use by people related to the military as of last September, of which 5,000 were actually in contract, they said.
Many U.S. bases have apartments for officers and rank-and-file service personnel, as well as restaurants, movie theaters and other leisure and sports facilities.

U.S. military authorities have not made public the conditions for allowing members to live off base, the officials said.
A source from the prefectural government said the conditions apparently concern the rank of the personnel and whether they have family.