In his July 20 letter, "No mention of arrest immunity," Yoshio Shimoji seems to be under the impression that U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan are immune from arrest and prosecution by Japanese authorities. Maybe he should tell this to the GIs who are presently serving -- or have served -- time in Japanese prisons. I'm sure they'd be interested.
Anyway, just to clear things up for Shimoji and others who might also be confused, we military personnel are NOT immune from arrest while in Japan. The treatment of U.S. military personnel falls under something called the Status of Forces Agreement, the full text of which can be found at: http://www.niraikanai.wwma.net/pages/archive/sofa.html
A small cut from Article 17 reads like this: "(b) the authorities of Japan shall have jurisdiction over the members of the United States Armed Forces, the civilian component, and their dependents with respect to offenses committed within the territory of Japan and punishable by the law of Japan."
Shimoji closes his letter with: Should any Japanese "who commits a crime while touring the U.S. be immune from prosecution under U.S. law? Nonsense!" To this, all one can say is nonsense. Are U.S. tourists in Japan immune from prosecution under Japanese law? No! Nor are U.S. military personnel.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.