U.S. forces and Japanese police will hold a joint patrol in Okinawa Prefecture next week after a number of sexual assault cases involving U.S. military personnel came to light last year, a Japanese government source said Thursday.
The first joint patrol is scheduled for the night of April 18 in the city of Okinawa and will be the first such patrol in the southern island prefecture since 1974. Local government officials and residents will also participate.
The joint patrol was proposed by the U.S. side as a measure to prevent a recurrence of sexual crimes by U.S. military personnel stationed in the prefecture, the source said.
File photo taken in June 2024 shows a busy street in downtown Naha, Okinawa. (Kyodo)
While such patrols were carried out in the past, local police were cautious about the initiative as any offending U.S. military personnel in principle remains in the custody of the United States until being charged by Japan, unless they are arrested at the scene of a crime, according to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.
The plan to conduct the patrol was agreed after officials of the U.S. forces, the Okinawa prefectural police as well as the Japanese foreign and defense ministries held talks on Wednesday, the source said.
The patrol will be held in busy areas through the early hours of the next day and officials hope it will stop U.S. military personnel from staying out all night.
In Okinawa Prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan, a U.S. Air Force serviceman was convicted last December of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 16 in 2023.
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AloJapan.com