December 20, 2024

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Yamazoe Taku, at a meeting of the House of Councilors Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense on December 19, pointed out that many Japanese victims of crimes committed by off-duty U.S. military personnel have been left uncompensated.

Article 18 of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) stipulates that when Japanese nationals are victimized by crimes and accidents involving members or employees of U.S. armed forces while off duty, it shall be up to the U.S. side to decide whether or not to pay compensation to the victims and how much to pay.

Yamazoe criticized this stipulation for overwhelmingly favoring the U.S. side.

In December 1996, according to Yamazoe, in order to make up the difference between the amount of compensation determined in court and the amount actually paid by the U.S., the Japan-U.S. Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) created a new compensation program under which the Japanese government shoulders the difference as a consolatory payment.

Over the past 27 years from 1996, the number of criminal arrests of U.S. servicemembers and U.S. military-attached civilian employees totaled 2,132. However, it was found in the answer of a Defense Ministry official given to Yamazoe at the same meeting that the Japanese government provided SACO consolatory payments for only 23 cases.

Yamazoe stressed the need to correct the unreasonable situation in which victims are forced to give up without being compensated. He said, “It is necessary to fundamentally revise the SACO compensation program and the SOFA itself.”