diveit comments

It is time for "Okexit".....Okinawa Exit

Please don't get me wrong...I want rapist, child molesters, sexual predators behind bars just like everyone else. However, please do not try and compare the American/English/Canadian/Australian legal systems to the Japanese system.

In California, the prosecutor has to indicted you (and you can ask for bail) within 96 hours. In Japan, they do not have to let you go for 23 days (judge/prosecutor-same difference) and then they can hold you without bail for 4 months or as long as they want with farcical reasoning (flight risk, tampering with evidence, victim's privacy, etc..). This whole time, you have lost the ability to mount a defense because your witnesses have been tampered with by the police, you cannot force evidence or assistance from witnesses that could exonerate you (they don't want to get involved-typical Japanese way), you have probably lost your job-hurting your ability to pay for investigative services to help you in your case, you cannot contact people or talk about your case to other people while you are in detention that could help your case (visitation is only one person a day and a guard monitors your communication and will not allow you to speak about the case)(Naha detention has a little more lee way but they monitor your communication and can cut you off if they think you are talking more than you should about the case) and you can only speak to the lawyer, who doesn't understand you or what you need to defend yourself.

If you try to find a Japanese attorney and want to view their win/lost rates, you will not find it...there is no such thing because they have all lost (I am talking about criminal cases and not so much about civil cases). The Japanese attorney's biggest advertisement is that they will ensure that they pay the victim so you do not have to go to court...they are strong in getting the victim to take the payment...not that they are strong in winning in court.

Americans in Japan that are here because we want to...I guess we have to suck it up. However, military members are generally ordered to come to Japan. These members, in my opinion, should not be turned over to the Japanese judicial system until Japan has changed to the English court system or all military members have been given a thorough knowledge of the Japanese guilty-until-proven-innocent system.

My advice to military members would be to not get drunk off-base and not date anyone off-base. If you have been drinking (even if you are sober) and a girl says you raped/sexually assaulted her...good luck because you are going to jail for 2 to 5 years whether you did it or not.

Toshiko...you need to really research Japan's legal system. Many Japanese will be surprised at what really happens in court. A lawyer is not present when the police interrogate a suspect. The judges will...will, let me repeat this again, will always follow the prosecutor's charges and convict. Only .03% of suspects will be acquitted in the first lower court and only .01% will be acquitted in the 2nd upper court. I am not talking about 3% or 1%, .03% and .01%. There are no check and balance in Japanese court system. There are only checks...police said he did it - check....prosecutor said he did it - check...there are no physical evidence that proves he is innocent (his testimony, others testimony, circumstantial evidence to prove his innocent will not be used to prove his innocence) - check...judges (he is guilty) - check.

Also, if the suspect has a court appointed lawyer, that lawyer will not "rock the boat" because they may not get court appointed cases in the future. The lawyers...especially court appointed lawyers know that they will lose the case so they will only go through the motions of a defense. Once a suspect has been indicted after 23 days in detention...that person will be convicted unless the suspect has clear, undeniable evidence. His word and friends words will be no good after the 23 day detention.

If the hotel video shows that the girl and the suspect were in the same hotel even though they were not in the same room, the police will use it as evidence that he did it. However, unless the video explicitly shows that he was never around her the whole time that he was in the hotel (which would be impossible since there are no hotel cameras in the rooms, bathrooms, etc..), he will not be able to use or imply that he is innocent even if the cameras never catches him and her together.

The police/prosecutor do not have to provide written testimony from the witness/suspect. They will provide their own summary of what they think the witness/suspect said to give to the court, for which the judges will take as gospel.

Unless you have ever been charged in Japan, I don't think you really understand how it works in Japan. You are guilty until proven innocent. Japan has a 99.9% conviction rate. Not because it is good but because, once you have been indicted, hear-say...false prosecution/police statements...false victim testimony...and you have to show that you did not do it (not the other way around)...will be used against you while you are behind bars and are not able to have anyone help you. Your attorney already knows you are going to lose so they will only go through formalities.

China only has a 98% conviction rate. The United States/International Courts should really review Japan's legal system if the US/International are going to abide by Japanese Court rulings. The Japanese courts will not lose face and will lie/slander to put the allege suspect in jail once the prosecution has decided they want them. So, he is guilty once she accused him as long as he was on the same island...and if he could not prove that he was no where around her (which the police will twist up to ensure that he was somewhere near her), he is done for.

Why are there so many convictions in Japan over rape but you never hear about rape convictions in England, Germany or Italy? There are a lot of military stationed in those countries. Are the women in those countries so ugly or do those countries abide by first world judicial systems? Innocent until proven guilty ... not guilty till proven innocent.

Why does this article call Governor Takeshi Onaga,

the combative governor of Okinawa. ?

Prime Minister Abe is pushing for the base and the people in Okinawa (not Okinawan people) elected a governor to show that they don't want the Henoko base, doesn't this make Prime Minister Abe combative, rude, etc...?

Why name call one side of the argument but not the other...or why name calling at all?

Some say that they want to change the constitution because it reminds them of Japan's defeat by the United States. However, they want to change the constitution to allowJapanese troops to protect and assist the military who defeated it...

I just wanted to make sure that everyone remembered that the reason we were not allowed into this game today is ultimately because the police killed Freddie Gray, the 37-year-old Hurson said.

You mean the police won this round!

And the difference between China in the South Pacific as compared to the United States and England in Deigo Garcia? Building runways and removing the Chagossians.

Wow,.. now that China and Japan are talking about security, there is no more need for the Americans on Okinawa. (sic)

Winning or losing does not matter. The United States lost in Vietnam and I am still waiting for my apology for invading Vietnam.

The United States was attacked by terrorist on 9/11 so I think that Japan should send Japanese troops to the United States to help defend the United States. So, about 50,000 Japanese troops should be stationed in the US with 75% of them placed in Hawaii. The new Japanese bases should take up the main corridors along H2 and H1 and should be spread out from Pearl Harbor all the way through to Waipahu. The American bases should be downsized even more so that the Japanese bases can take up most of the defense of the United States in the Pacific region.

Of course, the Japanese solders and their families should be given special license plates and drivers license, they should get a cost reduction in car insurance and inspections. Also, the Japanese military police should be required to be at all accidents, incidents or anything involving the Japanese soldier, civilian or their families. Like in Okinawa, the United States would not have a say as which Japanese soldiers, civilians or family members would be able to be stationed in Hawaii.

If a Japanese soldier rapes or causes a problem, they should be sent immediately back to their base and sent back to Japan. Americans living in Hawaii would just have to suck it up since these Japanese soldiers are their to protect their freedom. Who knows, the Japanese soldiers could be protecting Hawaii from the Chinese?

If Hawaii does not want the Japanese bases then who cares if they speak Chinese in a few years!

Since this would be a large Japanese base, there would also need to be a large ammo storage facility the size of Kadena ammo dump. The Japanese troops should be able to fly anything anywhere at anytime over Hawaii since the Japanese soldiers would be there to protect the American freedom...oh the sound of F4's/F15's...the sound of Freedom.

Where is Dr. Eldridge's proof? He and his family are not from Okinawa but from the Kanto plains. Why doesn't he advocate for the US bases to be moved to the Kanto plains? I think that there is a "silent majority that understands the military's role in Japan and especially near his in-laws' hometown."

afroengineer..sorry my bad. Africa is one big opportunity but the Africans have to do it themselves without relying too much on others.

afroengineer...Nice, blame it on the CIA and not the Africans themselves or the Soviets whom they went to ask for help. Congo has been independent for 50 years and it still cannot straighten itself out.

MistWizard...

I might tolerate that for a few months of someone's grief, but nine years? Certainly not.

Sounds like no one has ever died panfully in your family or you are able to get over it quickly.

Motogaijin...this doesn't have anything to do with black or white. This is 65% of Americans which includes: Muslims, Catholics, Protestants, White, Black, Green, etc..

It's like shouting "Fire, Fire" in a crowded theater when there is no fire. You can do it since it is protected by the first amendment but if anyone gets hurt, your going to jail.

Sure, Americans/permanent residents can build their Mosque anywhere they like according to the law and zoning ordinances but when the greatest foreign attack on the U.S. is directly or indirectly attributed to Muslims, freedom of speech may not go as far as they like.

A few years ago, someone desecrated the American flag in Ohio. Another individual assault and battered the person who desecrated the flag. The person was charged with assault and battery and was fined $1 and let go.

Previous members of the Supreme Court have said that, "the Constitution is not a suicide pack."

tkoind2..

No one group, or small collection of dissenters should be able to prevent such activity.

I don't consider 65% or more of the American people who disagree with this idea a small collection of dissenters.

When New York has over 50 mosques and is estimated to have more like 100+ mosques, why do you have to build it there? There are other options:

Build only a community center. Build a community center with mosque, church and synagogue. Go further out and find cheaper land and build the mosque/community center twice as large.

Why there, when you have people whose relatives died in 9/11 and feel animosity towards the mosque/center? Even if only one person objected, that person’s relative died because a Muslim belief.

Has anyone every heard of a "hafu" Brit, Canadian or American? Do we call President Obama a "hafu" American?

My mother is from Vietnam and my father is an American. I don't recall ever being called a "hafu/half" American in America. I am an American - period. So why are people so wrapped up about "hafu" Japanese.

As the Amerasian school in Okinawa expresses, Japanese children are not halfs but should be considered doubles. Doubles such as having 2 cultures and languages that they maybe required to speak and learn.

Well this long time expat still knows that I am a lucky man to have my Japanese wife (I guess I am the obligatory American husband) and that the author is a racist for calling my children mixed-race. My children are doubles, they have dual citizenships, dual passports and speak two languages fluently.

MistWizard - And try to remember: Iran has not attacked anyone in a long time.

Its proxies have.

Frugy, it seems you are in touch with Japan. You can tell those who do not understand the school system by using words such as "In my country, in America, not in a western country." Like you said, "3. Making teachers responsible for discipline without any actual power to administer discipline." This is the great problem that I see facing the Japanese education system.

In Japan, as anyone in the Japanese school system knows, the schools must allow students to attend school through the 9th grade. It is a right which cannot be taken away even due to disciplinary actions.

Anyone ever heard of the ebay japan? It sank like a rock. If flutter ever gets up and running, I can see yahoo.co.jp switch their site for English buyers also.

None of us were there, and we dont know the full extent of the story. There seems to be so much rage in the expat community when so many posters are assulting the teacher/principal on 4 1/2 paragraphs of print.

KinuyeOshiro...nice comments. My thoughts as well.

ElJeffe...Actually the JSDF would not have a say. As per the SOFA agreement, when the US leaves a base, the land has to be razed. Actually, there are no bases in Okinawa that I can think of in the last 30 years that has been turned into a JSDF base if it was not already JSDF. Makiminato turned into a second Naha, the helobase across from Camp Lester turned into Mihama, most of Camp Lester has turned into Chataan city office, Ginowan City office has a static display of what Futenma will look like after the turn over, the bear-cage in Yomitan has turned into housing plots, Awase golf course will turn into the largest Jusco in Okinawa ... I could go on.

KinuyeOshiro ... Nice comment.

Does the U.S. need to have military bases anywhere in Japan? - No...but Asia does. Though Japan has moved to a more modern society, many of the old people (especially those in J-gov) tend to be Oji-tarians(Old men doing only what they want to do without thought of those around them). This is not to say that the Japanese people are mean spirited but they tend to not be able to see past their noses.

So, to ensure that a military buildup does not happen in Asia (which Japan would aggrevate unintentionally), the U.S. is the best balancer and best credible powerbroker. Of course, we know, that Joe E-1 Marine is not the best diplomat and face of America but the total American military forces in Japan is diplomatically and respectfully of its host.

With gas expensive in Japan and only getting more expensive, why would someone want a Chrysler? Some of the Chrysler cars are smart and good looking but the days of free-for-all in gas spending is over. Cars of the future will be the electric (GM-Volt) or LP gas (Honda-Civic) and worst case senerio diesel cars which can be ran on biofuel and not have to rely on the Middle East. If I want the prestige look of a +$50,000 car, why buy a 300c (in Japan) when a mercedes says +$50,000 better.