Abe pledges to speed up Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement review after recent arrests of US military base personnel in Okinawa
In reviewing the bilateral pact that grants, in some cases, virtual extraterritorial rights to US military service personnel and some base workers
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged on Monday to speed up the work of reviewing the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement in the wake of arrests of US military base personnel in Okinawa.
In reviewing the bilateral pact that grants, in some cases, virtual extraterritorial rights to US military service personnel and some base workers, “we will swiftly compile effective measures” to help prevent crimes involving US personnel, Abe said in a meeting of government and ruling party officials.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and his Japanese counterpart Gen Nakatni agreed on Saturday to review the scope of the accord after a US base worker in Okinawa was arrested in connection with the death of a local woman.
The suspect, Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, 32, initially confessed to sexually assaulting and killing the 20-year-old woman but currently is only being held over the dumping of the woman’s body, according to police sources.
On Sunday, a member of the US Navy in Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after being involved in a vehicle accident in which two people were injured.
Investigative sources in the southern island prefecture said on Monday the suspect, Aimee Mejia, a 21-year-old petty officer 2nd class, admitted that she drank alcohol with a colleague before driving.
She told police she went to a male soldier’s home in the village of Yomitan in central Okinawa together with a female colleague and had a drink there. She says she was on her way home when the crash occurred.
With two people injured in the incident, police are set to send the case to prosecutors on the charge of dangerous driving resulting in bodily injuries, the sources said.
Abe said the sailor’s arrest is “very regrettable and outrageous at a time when discipline is being tightened” among US military members in Okinawa.
The US Navy said on Monday it has imposed an indefinite ban on the consumption of alcohol on and off base by all Navy personnel in Japan and prohibited those living in the community from travel except to and from work and for “essential activities” including trips to childcare centres, supermarkets, gas stations or gyms.
The Okinawa prefectural government decided to lodge a protest against the US forces stationed in Japan and the Japanese Foreign and Defence ministries as well as to demand an enforcement of strict discipline and effective measures to prevent a recurrence, prefectural officials said.
