On September 4, three US servicemen - two marines and a sailor - abducted and raped an elementary school girl, an Okinawan native, on a beach.
U.S. armed forces rejected to hand the suspects
over to Japanese authorities and had kept them for three
weeks. U.S.forces assume jurisdiction based on SoFA (US-Japan
Status of Forces Agreements), that allows to hold the
criminals until Japan civilian investigations are completed.
It often takes several months.
Okinawan think SoFA is unfair and want to change the regulation.
But Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono does not understand how Okinawan suffer from SoFA.
An example of the agreement between Germany and US shows no such regulation as for Japan. US suspects in Germany must be handed to their domestic court.
SoFA is a contract between two nations. But based on the fact that 75% of US force in Japan is gathered in Okinawa, such crimes tend to happen only in Okinawa.
As Okinawa is located rather far from Japan mainland, Japan mainlanders are less sensitive to the unfair condition.
After W.W.II, Okinawa was under US for 27 years. In those day, jurisdiction was in US forces. Accordingly unfair judgements were put to Okinawan in some cases.
But after under Japan, a dozen of crimes has been provoked by by US servicemen in Okinawa. In some cases, criminals were not punished and US force let them free back to US country.
Revision
plan from Okinawa (or Clikc here)
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