Japan urges U.S. military to make changes to stop rapes in Okinawa

Don't let them off the base unless they promise not to rape. That should work.

Simple solution. Yanks go home. Bye!

This BS must stop,

If the crime took place on Japanese soil then the defendant should be turned over to the Japanese authorities just like everyone else.

They usually restrict all alcohol drinking and the night time freedom of movement of adults.

while also acknowledging drinking and time of day was no factor in the crimes.

nah, jpn gov should legislate arrest by jpn police and holding until jpn court sentences them and releases them, anything else is an acceptance of semi colonialism. Mr. Kip, Are you saying they are already allowed of base to rape and need to promise. Fact recorded xxxtimes they still consider local rapes their accepted right! If you had a jpn daughter/wife?? hah but they promised! Which one of you carries the shame?

iroin man..

Mr. Kip, Are you saying they are already allowed of base to rape and need to promise.

No, I was being sarcastic and making fun of the pathetic attempt by the Japanese government at showing they have any control over the occupying force.

Recruiting candidates of a higher standard of education - and background - would help. Giving lectures and reading the riot act about behaving in a foreign nation clearly means nothing to some of a certain "type".

It almost seems as if many US Military members recruited and sent to Japan must have been in street gangs back home.

Nothing will stop the decades and decades long endemic of rapes of women and children, sometimes in a group format, kidnappings and other associated abuses.

This is one of the prices of being a satellite: voluntary submission to the hegemon.

They can't stand up to the overlord and they can't ask anybody to help because most of their fellow vassals have supinely done the same.

I want the people of Okinawa to know that not all U.S. servicemen stationed there are rapists. There are some who are not.

I cannot understand why US troops are here in any case. This isn't US soil. Because Japan lost the war 80 years ago means that the US has the right to have Japan host its forces?

So USA service personal need a higher standard of education to prevent raping ????

So what are the students taught in the USA education system. When oversea you are allow to rape because you are from the USA ????

In most civil countries it is taught at school through sex education what rape is and rape in a crime.

I think foreign service bases and the mistreatment of women go together.

Prostitution in Philippines, Thailand and other places followed R and R placements for US and other troops.

A case can be made that US servicemen introduced a heroin underclass in Kings Cross , Sydney , during the Vietnam war period.

I’m afraid the only way to stop it is for Japanese to start wearing a uniform and replace the US presence by defending themselves. Perhaps conscription of young Japanese men and women to fill the positions left by the leaving US military might help.

The women of Okinawa obviously require better protection from the US servicemen, by way of less US protection of them on foreign soil, and making them fully accountable under local law. It should just be black and white: You rape someone in Japan, you are on your own.

BertieWoosterToday 06:00 pm JST

I cannot understand why US troops are here in any case. This isn't US soil. Because Japan lost the war 80 years ago means that the US has the right to have Japan host its forces?

Japan can send them home anytime and it would even probably result in ending the mutual defense treaty which would also make you smile.

Longer prison terms and in Japanese ones.

No number of rapes is ever acceptable. No more coverups. Any legal issue that happens off a US military base needs to be handled by Japanese Police using Japanese laws and punishment. Automatic dishonorable discharges for every conviction.

When there are 25K people in any place, interacting, things happen. Sometimes terrible things, especially with people younger than 30. The US Army and US Marines are taught to be aggressive. It is necessary for fighting enemies and winning. Some of that bleeds over into non-military life, unfortunately.

I'm not making excuses. I'd be ok with physical castration for every convicted male rapists, not just chemical castration. Let them walk around with a nub for this sort of violent act. It won't matter. These are crimes of passion. It isn't like SP can accompany every member of the US military on their dates or town trips.

A conviction and dishonorable discharge will follow them the rest of their lives, back in the US. Every employment application/contract I've see has a checkbox for convictions and dishonorable military discharges. Most employers will not hire someone who checks either box.

Can’t the US military devise a chastity belt for off base US soldiers?

How about letting Japanese females carry weapons like pepper spray or pistols?

TWN, Sure. but ensure an enforced defense of japanese families. Not sure how to word this. if your daughter.....??

So USA service personal need a higher standard of education to prevent raping ????

Need to feel sorry for the Okinawan people, time and time again. Sadly when you are in Japan and have an American passport you can get away with anything.

I cannot understand why US troops are here in any case. This isn't US soil. Because Japan lost the war 80 years ago means that the US has the right to have Japan host its forces?

Yes. Winners make the rules.

Yes. Winners make the rules.

And the rules they make tell us who they are.

 "There have been five serious and heinous crimes in around the past year that have disregarded the human rights and dignities of women."

Wow! A whole five? They really got into overdramatizing this statement, didn’t they? I’m not saying it’s acceptable but how many women suffered such ‘heinous’ crimes at the hands of Japanese men in the same period?

It only takes one Marine to taint the whole thing and privalge, honor to serve on Japanese soil. 1 Marine.

A change must be made. And the Okinawan public has the right to lodge complaints.

I agree with those who think the crime should held up in Japanese courts.

Commit a crime in Japan. Found guilty. Japanese prison you go.

Why does Japan/Nippon "need" these US marines in their home though? Why won't you guys ask them to leave the country and live in peace?

Another proof we're 51st state of the US.

No one would come to a place where they don’t have the basic protections they have in their own country against unjustly being put in foreign prison.

For example an unproven accusation driven by bias or hate or racism entirely adjudicated in a foreign court in a foreign language with poor interpreters.

these people aren’t tourists who chose to come and subject themselves to whatever Japan decides to do to them.

the military are ordered to do so. at Japan’s request and for Japan’s benefit and protection.

As such they should and do get “extra” protections in the process of determining guilt and liability for accusations of criminal activity.

How embarrassing, just downright humiliating to have to beg to 'stop' sexual assaults: geopolitical impotence is the real underlying diagnosis. 

Tokyo has spent so much effort during the last two decades into coasting on borrowed security with vacant ideological rhetoric while vassalising itself to the US, that it is way out of its depth when it comes to attempting to reassert basic autonomy.

The question is not whether Japan is ready to make that leap and exert sovereignty (they can't in the face of the occupying hegemon, without growing a pair) - but whether they even remember how.

JJEToday  05:33 pm JST

Nothing will stop the decades and decades long endemic of rapes of women and children, sometimes in a group format, kidnappings and other associated abuses.

This is one of the prices of being a satellite: voluntary submission to the hegemon.

They can't stand up to the overlord and they can't ask anybody to help because most of their fellow vassals have supinely done the same.

Let's not single out US servicemen as being more likely to commit rape than Japanese men. There is no evidence for that and nobody is suggesting that.

Actually there is.

Simple solution. Yanks go home. Bye!

Couldn't have said it before. So sad that a country like Japan is not sovereign, but a vassal state of the most violent nation on earth.

The obvious course of action is to treat all U.S. military personnel to the same judicial accountability, for there actions, criminality as every Japanese citizen.

No expectations.

Jaswinder Sandhu

Why does Japan/Nippon "need" these US marines in their home though? Why won't you guys ask them to leave the country and live in peace?

That is why the rhetoric anti China comes handy for Washington. If Japan were to seek dialogue and regular trade with the top neighbor country, as it should be, US military basis had no reason to exist. Same for the sales of expensive weapons which are a huge asset on a global stage

Under either countries' legislation they are free again after some years and can potentially commit the next similar or other crimes. So this whole discussion and demands for change of the procedures are simply completely useless and nonsense.

The only way to stop the rapes is to remove US troops from Okinawa.

And the only way to remove US troops from Okinawa is for Okinawans to declare independence and ask Americans to leave as a sovereign country.

Samit Basu

The only way to stop the rapes is to remove US troops from Okinawa.

Not a chance. Tomorrow the US media will fabricate a story which shows China or North Korea being a dangerous threat for Japan's security, or the Philippines, to shift public opinion perceptions on the need of US marines in Okinawa. We have seen it before.

Simple solution. Yanks go home. Bye!

Simple? That would really make the Chinese happy, that would play right into their hands.

Couldn't have said it before. So sad that a country like Japan is not sovereign, but a vassal state of the most violent nation on earth.

And who protects it, gives it aid and weapons, trade, yeah, so evil. Lol

And who protects it, gives it aid and weapons...

Protection from what. An imaginary aggression?

Just like I said in the previous message: here comes the US department of State in defense of the mighty right of US marines, little earlier than anticipated. You've got to feel sorry for Okinawan people. Things will never change. Never mind :)

Yankee go home?!

What a ridiculous, derogatory ill-judged slur.

The question here is a minority of criminal sexual deviant delinquent misfits be held to account , demanding such behaviour be offer no quarter if found to be complicit, as J law see fit.

I cannot understand why US troops are here in any case.

You seem to have forgotten how we got here in the first place, need a little history lesson from over 80 years ago?

This isn't US soil.

You are right.

Because Japan lost the war 80 years ago means that the US has the right to have Japan host its forces?

Yes, this is the consequence of those horrific actions it wrought upon the US. Fast forward to a rising China, which continues to grow more hostile by the day and still holds deep-rooted anger towards the Japanese, leaving this nation is giving the Chinese exactly what it wants, and Japan cannot fight a Chinese military all by itself.

Look if called upon, US airman, sailors, soldiers stationed in will be ordered to sacrifice there lives, US families will lose loved ones, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters.

To sneeringly advocate "Yankee go home" is an unacceptable uneducated smear.

I thought, to subject every US servicemen, to "paint all with the same brush" was considered a grave injustice consigned to history.

Just hold the sexual deviants to be held accountable.

The article states that the US serviceman has been accused of rape. Under Japan's constitution and CCP a person must be assumed innocent until found guilty, (although we all know that in practice it doesn't work like that in Japan). Has this serviceman even been charged yet?

Fighto!Jan. 9 05:31 pm JST

Recruiting candidates of a higher standard of education - and background - would help. Giving lectures and reading the riot act about behaving in a foreign nation clearly means nothing to some of a certain "type".

> It almost seems as if many US Military members recruited and sent to Japan must have been in street gangs back home.

Your veiled insinuations mean nothing. There are high-ranking people in the Japanese government and the U.S. government that have been entangled in cases of sexual assault but you would not post that about them. Trump and a few past presidents and cabinet members in Japan and the U.S. are in that boat. All you people with your holier-than- though attitudes are what the biggest problem in the world is because you swear your kind and places like Japan are above such things, but, as usual, you are misinformed. Get educated, not brainwashed.

The US servicemen are afforded jurisprudence, presumed innocent.

However, no quite so straight forward, is it!

Agreement under article vi of the treaty of mutual cooperation and security between Japan and the united states of America, regarding facilities and areas and the status of united states armed forces in Japan

https://www.mofa.go.jp/region/n-america/us/q&a/ref/2.html

Article IX......

2, Members of the United States armed forces shall be exempt from Japanese passport and visa laws and regulations. Members of the United States armed forces, the civilian component, and their dependents shall be exempt from Japanese laws and regulations on the registration and control of aliens, but shall not be considered as acquiring any right to permanent residence or domicile in the territories of Japan.

Vague ambiguous , deliberately so, open to interpretation.

It is conceivable that the accused could evade any trail, if arbitrarily deemed necessary........

5, If the status of any person brought into Japan under paragraph 1 of this Article is altered so that he would no longer be entitled to such admission, the United States authorities shall notify the Japanese authorities and shall, if such person be required by the Japanese authorities to leave Japan, assure that transportation from Japan will be provided within a reasonable time at no cost to the Government of Japan.

Article XVII provides the over arching get out of jail free card..

2 The military authorities of the United States shall have the right to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over persons subject to the military law of the United States with respect to offenses, including offenses relating to its security, punishable by the law of the United States, but not by the law of Japan.

itsonlyrocknrollToday 01:57 am JST

Article XVII provides the over arching get out of jail free card..

Not when you see the second part:

The authorities of Japan shall have the right to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over members of the United States armed forces, the civilian component, and their dependents with respect to offenses, including offenses relating to the security of Japan, punishable by its law but not by the law of the United States.

In any event, this is just security matters.

deanzaZZRToday 01:17 am JST

Imagine if you will a world in which Japanese maintain military bases in the USA. In this world rapes of USA women happen regularly by Japanese soldiers off base. What would be the USA response?

Japan has the option of taking over their defense, nuclear deterrent included, but chooses not to.

ever had the feeling like you’ve read all this before?

TaiwanIsNotChina

I agree. that is the conclusion I come to as well, having after reading numerous times.

Apparently, I am misinterpreting the fine/small print when viewed in the treaty's entirety

The level of criminality, and evidence etc.

Bass4funk

Yes, this is the consequence of those horrific actions it wrought upon the US. Fast forward to a rising China, which continues to grow more hostile by the day and still holds deep-rooted anger towards the Japanese, leaving this nation is giving the Chinese exactly what it wants, and Japan cannot fight a Chinese military all by itself.

This is the meta narrative designed to frighten Japan into thinking they need the US for protection and to further justify US military presence in Asia. It's absolute nonsense.

There's no way China are going to attack Japan in 2025. No way. They have absolutely no reason to do that, have made no noises whatsoever that they have that intention, and the world is a completely different place to the 1930's. This is just pro-US spin that keeps the wheels of the war machine spinning, enables US hegemony and keeps Japan in a vassal state mentality.

Japan already has a very substantial military - more than enough to hold its own in this region and deterrent enough for any imaginary hostile action. Send the Yanks home.

It's a ridiculous argument as the Chinese navy only eclipsed the Japanese navy within the past decade more or less. How were these invading Chinese hordes going to get to Japanese shores?

This is the meta narrative designed to frighten Japan into thinking they need the US for protection and to further justify US military presence in Asia. It's absolute nonsense.

They do, they know it and the U.S. knows it.

There's no way China are going to attack Japan in 2025. No way.

Of course not, we’re here, so you’re right about that one.

They have absolutely no reason to do that, have made no noises whatsoever that they have that intention, and the world is a completely different place to the 1930's. This is just pro-US spin that keeps the wheels of the war machine spinning, enables US hegemony and keeps Japan in a vassal state mentality. 

Well, like I said earlier, we would never have been here had Japan not done what it did 80 years ago.

Japan already has a very substantial military -

Really now? A self-defense force?

https://youtu.be/2XpZR2yMnN0?si=IQ_JxXsekAqV6pOp

By itself Japan would be crushed

more than enough to hold its own in this region and deterrent enough for any imaginary hostile action. Send the Yanks home.

Lol, funny, and very cute, but that’s not going to happen, nor should it.

TamaramaToday  06:37 am JST

They have absolutely no reason to do that, have made no noises whatsoever that they have that intention,

Except for hosting the governor of Okinawa and waxing nostalgic about the good old days when Okinawa was independent. Also China would like to declare control over the Senkakus.

and the world is a completely different place to the 1930's.

Except for the countries still living in the 1930s in terms of human rights.

Tamarama

There's no way China are going to attack Japan in 2025. 

As I said yesterday the crowd of American Patriots come to defend the presence of US military. Don't touch the huge interests of industrial military complex. First the rhetorics, and this afternoon you will see a story about "threatening China"

Bass4Funk

Of course not, we’re here, so you’re right about that one.

If the US left tomorrow, Japan would not be under any threat of attack whatsoever. Your myth only.

Really now? A self-defense force?

Japan ranks around 7th globally for the strength of its military.

Also China would like to declare control over the Senkakus.

Japan should just sell them to China. They aren't worth the trouble they are causing. Nothing wrong with Pragmatism in politics.

Not one but two stories from pro government main conservative daily paper: Here is reason why the US military bases stay in Okinawa, forget the crimes of US servicemen. 

One story slandering China:

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/defense-security/20250109-232213/

And one story mentioning the danger of North Korea: 

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/world/asia-pacific/20250109-232273/

If the US left tomorrow, Japan would not be under any threat of attack whatsoever. Your myth only.

Well, if you think that, China will have hugs for you. You believe that. Lol

Japan ranks around 7th globally for the strength of its military. 

And never tested since 1945

Japan should just sell them to China. They aren't worth the trouble they are causing. Nothing wrong with Pragmatism in politics.

I see, well, anyway that will never happen, so no worries.

Each country gets 2 out of the 4 "larger" islands. Jointly develop any gas/oil development and share the revenue. It is not rocket science.

Japan should just sell them to China.

The U.S. military must have the highest moral standard in the world, oh it wasn't!

TamaramaToday 10:17 am JST

Also China would like to declare control over the Senkakus.

Japan should just sell them to China. They aren't worth the trouble they are causing. Nothing wrong with Pragmatism in politics.

How about China sell them to Japan, then? China is the one flush with cash apparently.

deanzaZZRToday 10:36 am JST

Each country gets 2 out of the 4 "larger" islands. Jointly develop any gas/oil development and share the revenue. It is not rocket science.

Too bad China has never shared anything in its life.

Let the Okinawans have a referendum on whether the bases should stay.

Also, is rule from Tokyo what is wanted?

Let the referenda decide….

Basically in response to this whole thread:

A. The base is there for the joint defense of Japan and surrounding areas. If you don't know why, move to china. The US could leave, but it's providing a deterrence that Japan frankly just can't do.

B. Nobody is letting anyone get away with anything, they just can't let military personnel be put in local prisons because they will immediately blab military secrets.

C. The rapist will be sent back to the US, dishonorably discharged, be financially ruined and tarred for life, and spend many years in jail.

D. He'll probably then go on to work for the Trump admin? Seems to be their employment pipeline.

SomeWeeb

Or point E:

The US industrial military complex stops the warmongering campaign in Asia, leave Japan and Cina have normal trade relationships and diplomatic ties, no need for Tokyo to spend billions of dollars in US weapons (money which could be used for more important social issues) , US marines can go back and the Japanese ladies in Okinawa will feel more secure.

US Army, go home and prepare to attach, Greenland, Canada, Panama... You can come back once you are ready to pay the base rent and when you have a sane president in 4 years.

SomeWeebToday 02:06 pm JST

B. Nobody is letting anyone get away with anything, they just can't let military personnel be put in local prisons because they will immediately blab military secrets

If the crime is committed off base they are put in local prisons.

WasabiToday 04:53 pm JST

US Army, go home and prepare to attach, Greenland, Canada, Panama... You can come back once you are ready to pay the base rent and when you have a sane president in 4 years.

If we are paying rent, does that mean we can use it to defend Taiwan?

If the crime is committed off base they are put in local prisons.

In most cases, if the prepetrator is put in prision is only for a few days, then they are released (almost forcefuly) to be turned to the Base PMs... from there they usually have a demotion and are sent back to the US where they are not prosecuted nor punished for the crime they commited nor pay compensation to the victim (the US military may pay the victim but not the perpetrator).

Daniel NeagariToday 05:18 pm JST

If the crime is committed off base they are put in local prisons.

In most cases, if the prepetrator is put in prision is only for a few days, then they are released (almost forcefuly) to be turned to the Base PMs... from there they usually have a demotion and are sent back to the US where they are not prosecuted nor punished for the crime they commited nor pay compensation to the victim (the US military may pay the victim but not the perpetrator).

Sources where someone was released from Japanese prisons without charges being dropped or nonsense.

then tell me, how many US military accused of rape have been prosecuted? Sure there are a couple, but not in the numbers of accusation.

I stand by the need to defend and protect Taiwan and even recognize it as its own country. And also the importance of the US military presence for that... But that does not mean that US service personel can go around and do what ever they want and defend their actions as you do.

Daniel NeagariToday 05:46 pm JST

then tell me, how many US military accused of rape have been prosecuted? Sure there are a couple, but not in the numbers of accusation.

Sounds like a local problem to me.

Sounds like a local problem to me.

A local problem??? a US military member rapes or sexualy abuses women and even minors... local o no it is still a crime that should be punished by the juridiction where it occured and the perpetrator should not be protected by the US military.

Pukey2Jan. 9 10:31 pm JST

Simple solution. Yanks go home. Bye!

Couldn't have said it before. So sad that a country like Japan is not sovereign, but a vassal state of the most violent nation on earth.

And yet zero wars of aggression being conducted by the US at the moment.

And yet a plethora of rapes being conducted.

TWN,

And yet zero wars of aggression being directed by the US at the moment? Get into 2024/2025, And for the rest of yous, are you agitating a jpn sacrifice of virginity, yen, lifes, lifestyles to protect Taiwan and the hegemony of the Unitians. Japan for the Japan peoples, I have a DNA interest, not just a USD interest.

iron man

Now you know the reason why the US industrial military complex thrives in Japan and the US marines crimes go unpunished. They hire people who can spread manipulative narrative against a hypothetical aggressor (I.e. China), and by scaring the public opinion they get to preserve their own interests and and keep on selling American made weapons

FosToday 01:57 pm JST

China's aggression around Taiwan and the Philippines is real.

Full of SomethingToday 03:02 pm JST

We're not in 1964 anymore. We are in 2025 and throwing China back from its aggression.

I was told once a few years ago by a COMMANDING OFFICER of IWAKUNI MCAS that they were pulled by two sides when these things happen. One were the citizens that get upset when these things happen and the other side are the bars, clubs and businesses that get upset when they “restrict” military and SOFA members to bases and lose millions spent by military and SOFA members. Who should they be following?

@Taiwan and @Rock,

Art. XVII makes this a case of shared jurisdiction as rape is a crime in both countries. When the crimes are not against the security of the US nor against another member of the SOFA forces, then Japan has primary jurisdiction. When the Japanese Police have assembled enough evidence to pass the case to the Japanese Prosecutors, the Japanese Prosecutors will decide whether to indict the American. At that point, the US Government agrees it will turn over an indicted military member.

Because of many cases of Japanese Police getting false confessions out of suspects, even Japanese suspects, the US Government (in my opinion) is wise to exercise their leverage and not allow their military personnel to be subject to potential abusive Japanese Police practices. Instead, the Japanese Police actually have to do real investigative work rather than relying on confessions alone.

It seems so many posters above feel it's not fair that the American military personnel should be exempted from the tender mercies of Japanese Police interrogations and confessions. I feel it is unfair that anyone, American, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, European, Australian, southeast Asian, should be subjected to the Japanese Police interrogations process. The goal should be for all persons to have the same rights as the American military, not for reducing the American military members' rights to the really low baseline here in Japan.

Sal Affist

It is not about jurisdiction here. Things will never change until the manipulative narrative brought forward by the US State department, and this forum is an example, will keep spreading in the main media. As you can see it today they came up with imaginary accidents between Philippines and China vessels in the South China Sea, which, in the perception of the people who know nothing about geopolitics, let alone administration rules, means "best to have the military basis", even though they represent a risk for our women, than uncertainty. I even heard theoretical rumors of "occupation".

BertieWoosterJan. 9 06:00 pm JST

I cannot understand why US troops are here in any case. This isn't US soil. Because Japan lost the war 80 years ago means that the US has the right to have Japan host its forces?

geography much? The US troops are here because the Japanese government wants them here and it's the Japanese who can ask them to leave whenever they like! I'm sure trump would be more than happy to bring them all back home, and those in Korea as well as in other regions. But the question is can Japan stand on it's own two feet against China, North Korea and Russia without a YUGE military buildup which would take a decade or more to accomplish? How long do you think it would be before the China moved on the Senkaku Islands?

Dave Fair

the Japanese who can ask them to leave whenever they like! 

You make it really easy, the US marines, even if they are asked to leave, will not do it, because of the YUGE economic interests. Look at what happen at the Hatoyama government in 2009 and how long it lasted after the row over US base in Okinawa.

Let's be realistic here

The U.S. controls about 800 military bases in more than 90 countries worldwide, as opposed to 3 or 4 of China globally. United States of America military spending in 2023 was over $900 billions, 3 times as much as China, based on the statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The 41 companies in the Top 100 based in the United States recorded arms revenues of $317 billion, half the total arms revenues of the Top 100 and 2.5 per cent more than in 2022. Since 2018, the top five companies in the Top 100 have all been based in the USA.

China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack Japan. The anti-Beijing hysteria is clearly being led by the Washington which is not concerned that China will attack other countries, but is worried that its world hegemony is being challenged

FosJan. 12 10:23 pm JST

You make it really easy, the US marines, even if they are asked to leave, will not do it, because of the YUGE economic interests.

Can't prove a negative so this will remain nonsense. The US left the Philippines when asked.

The U.S. controls about 800 military bases in more than 90 countries worldwide, as opposed to 3 or 4 of China globally. United States of America military spending in 2023 was over $900 billions, 3 times as much as China, based on the statistics from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Good on the US. It has to reach across the world to throw China back.

The 41 companies in the Top 100 based in the United States recorded arms revenues of $317 billion, half the total arms revenues of the Top 100 and 2.5 per cent more than in 2022. Since 2018, the top five companies in the Top 100 have all been based in the USA.

Still 1% of gdp and the next 5 are Chinese.

China has neither the intent nor the capability to attack Japan.

China can definitely destroy whatever it wants with its missiles.

The anti-Beijing hysteria is clearly being led by the Washington which is not concerned that China will attack other countries, but is worried that its world hegemony is being challenged

China definitely threatens all of its free neighbors.

CPowell

The US left the Philippines when asked.

Ah ah.... those are comedy dispatches, they do not come from military anymore? Just to let you know the US troops left the Philippines because of the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 after he was clear that the Manila government would not pay what the greedy US industrial military complex asked to contribute. And it was clear that the population was against the colonial dominance of Washington, considered as an intrusion on Philippine sovereignty.

What is happening in Okinawa is even worse

Japan urges U.S. military to make changes to stop rapes in Okinawa

Good luck with that. You bring American bases into your country, and you get what you get.

Japan’s Path to True Sovereignty: Strengthening Defense and Building Strategic Independence

As the geopolitical landscape in East Asia becomes increasingly volatile, Japan faces critical decisions about its national security and sovereignty. Incidents like those recently reported in Okinawa serve as reminders of the complexities of hosting foreign military forces. While the Japan-U.S. alliance has been a cornerstone of regional stability, it is time for Japan to take bold steps to ensure its self-reliance and global standing.

The Case for Rearming Japan

Japan boasts one of the most advanced self-defense forces globally but remains constrained by a post-WWII pacifist constitution that limits its ability to act proactively. With rising threats from China’s assertive policies, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and Russia’s unpredictability, a reactive stance is no longer sufficient. Japan must transition to a robust, proactive defense posture, including:

Developing Strategic Weapons Systems: Modernizing its military capabilities, including missile defense and long-range strike systems.

Building a Credible Nuclear Deterrent: While controversial, possessing a nuclear deterrent is a logical step in ensuring Japan’s security in a region dominated by nuclear powers.

Evolving the Japan-U.S. Alliance

The Japan-U.S. alliance has been vital in maintaining peace in the Asia-Pacific. However, the relationship must evolve to reflect true equality between partners. Japan should:

Gradually Take Over U.S. Base Operations: Japan can enhance its sovereignty by assuming control of key U.S. military facilities. This phased approach would demonstrate Japan's readiness to lead its defense while maintaining close cooperation with the U.S.

Mutual Basing Agreements: Propose reciprocal base rights, where Japan can establish bases in U.S. territories or participate in joint training on American soil. This would underscore the mutual respect and parity of the alliance.

The Strategic and Moral Imperative

Addressing Historical Sensitivities: Japan’s military resurgence can and should be framed as a defensive necessity rather than a return to militarism. Transparent policies and collaboration with international allies can reinforce this narrative.

Protecting Japanese Sovereignty: Allowing foreign forces to operate with limited accountability undermines Japan’s authority over its territory. Strengthening its own military ensures that Japan retains control over its security decisions.

Global Perspective: Learning from History

Japan must observe the lessons from nations that have relied heavily on external security guarantees. The Philippines, for instance, asked U.S. forces to leave in the 1990s but later invited them back amid rising regional tensions. This underscores the need for balance—cooperation with allies while building self-sufficiency.

Cultural and Economic Benefits

Rearming Japan can invigorate its economy through increased investments in defense technology and research. It also offers an opportunity to unite its citizens around a shared vision of national pride and responsibility, potentially addressing issues like declining population morale and global influence.

Conclusion

The path forward is clear: Japan must take control of its destiny. By rearming, developing a nuclear deterrent, and rebalancing its alliance with the U.S., Japan can emerge as a stronger, more equal partner on the world stage. This strategy not only strengthens Japan’s sovereignty but also ensures regional stability in the face of growing challenges.

Let us not view these steps as abandoning peace but as embracing the responsibility of securing it for future generations.