Two recent incidents have drawn public attention to the Japan-U.S. agreement on handling U.S. military members suspected of committing a crime in Japan. In one case, a sailor arrested after a car accident was transferred to U.S. military authorities. In the other -- the robbery and fatal beating of a Japanese woman -- the U.S. Navy handed over a suspect to Japanese police. These incidents have raised concerns among Japanese who live near U.S. bases.
On Dec. 22, a vehicle driven by a 23-year-old female sailor serving aboard the USS Kitty Hawk hit and injured three boys at an intersection in Hachioji, Tokyo. Although police arrested her, she eventually was placed in U.S. custody under a provision of the 1960 Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement that says "military authorities of the United States shall have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over" U.S. military personnel "in relation to offenses arising out of any act or omission done in the performance of official duty." The U.S. military said the sailor was on her way from Atsugi Naval Air Facility to Yokota Air Base to pick up equipment.
On Jan. 3, Yoshie Sato, 56, was found beaten and unconscious at a building entrance in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, around 6:30 a.m. She later died of internal bleeding. She had been robbed of about 15,000 yen. Mr. William O. Reese, a 21-year-old sailor, also stationed on the Kitty Hawk, was taken into custody by the U.S. military on Jan. 4 after he confessed to the killing. Mr. Reese had been recorded on a security camera installed near the scene of the crime and had returned to the Yokosuka Naval Base wearing bloodstained clothing. Complying with a Japanese request, the U.S. military turned the suspect over to Japanese police on Jan. 7, and he was placed under arrest the same day.