Japan's Prime Minister Calls the US Military Curfew 'Insufficient' After the Okinawa Killing as Pressure Builds to Revise the Status of Forces Agreement
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on October 13 that the curfew US forces imposed on Okinawa after a local woman was killed is “insufficient.” She said Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi had made “very strong requests” to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and to the US ambassador, George Glass.
Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, a Marine based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, was arrested on October 4 over the killing of Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in Naha on October 3. He denies the charges. The case went to prosecutors on October 5. No charges have been announced. Stars and Stripes has obtained security footage that appears to show him near the victim on October 2.
Photo: Hideyuki Kamon, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The US response
The commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant General Benjamin Watson, ordered a 30-day “Period of Reflection,” with a curfew from midnight to 5am and an alcohol ban, through November 8. The Okinawa Navy Ball was postponed. Rubio offered condolences to Motegi on October 11 and pledged to “communicate and fully cooperate.”
On October 10 the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly demanded an apology, compensation and revision of the Status of Forces Agreement, the 1960 treaty that governs US forces in Japan.
The SOFA question
The agreement lets US authorities keep custody of service members accused of crimes until Japan files charges, except in serious cases handled under a 1995 understanding. Each high-profile case on Okinawa, which hosts about 70% of the land used exclusively by US forces in Japan, revives demands to rewrite it. Washington has preferred to adjust how the agreement is applied without reopening the text.
Why it matters
Japan is the US’s most important ally in Asia and is raising defense spending toward 2% of GDP. The relationship is already under strain this month. Rubio defended US sanctions on the International Criminal Court to Motegi on the same October 10 call; Japan is a member and a major funder of the court, as covered in our ICC post.
A Japanese prime minister publicly calling a US mitigation step inadequate is unusual. Takaichi is a conservative and strong supporter of the alliance, which makes the criticism weightier. With G20 foreign ministers meeting in Atlanta on October 30, Washington has a few weeks to show it’s taking the case seriously before the issue spreads into base politics, including the long-delayed move of Futenma’s operations to Henoko.