Okinawa’s governor said on Monday he would request a fundamental review of the pact governing US forces in Japan, following the alleged murder of a Japanese woman by an American Marine. “I’ll call for a fundamental review of the SOFA,” Governor Genta Koja told a news conference in Tokyo, referring to the 1960 Japan US Status of Forces Agreement, which critics say gives the US military preferential treatment, including the primary right to investigate and punish service members for acts on official duty.
Prosecutors indicted the Marine last month on suspicion of murdering a 39 year old Japanese woman at an Okinawa hotel. Prefectural police arrested Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, stationed at Futenma Air Station, on suspicion of strangling Anna Yagi in the island’s capital, Naha, early on October 3 and stealing her wallet and backpack. He has denied the allegations, according to Japanese media. Koja called the alleged murder “an extremely heinous crime that has caused great anxiety amongst residents of Okinawa,” and said that after every incident involving US service members, Okinawa has repeatedly lodged strong protests with the US military and both governments.
Koja specified what a review should cover: prompt compliance with Japanese requests to transfer suspects in detention before indictment, and applying Japanese laws such as the aviation act to the US military. Okinawa’s lawmakers adopted a resolution last month calling for revisions to the pact, which will soon be submitted to the US embassy. He also said he would seek the swift return of lands used by the US military in Okinawa’s commercial centre under a 2013 agreement, which he said would help boost the local economy.
The politics cut both ways. Koja, elected governor in September, is the first Okinawa leader in 12 years who has approved the contentious plan to relocate the Futenma air base within Okinawa’s main island, which makes his review demand harder for Tokyo to dismiss as anti base positioning. The United States has about 54,000 service members in Japan, most stationed in Okinawa.
The immediate response so far is disciplinary rather than legal. Japan and the United States agreed on Friday to measures aimed at preventing crimes by US service members on Okinawa, including talks on community relations and Japan’s legal system, and US officials extended a 30 day curfew imposed on some service members after the killing through December 7. A SOFA revision requires both governments to agree to reopen a 1960 treaty instrument; neither has said it will.