The military leadership in Yokosuka Japan are now implementing their own USFK style restrictions in response to serious acts of indiscipline that has occurred recently in Japan:

All Yokosuka-based Navy personnel, civilians and dependents were cut off from late-night drinking in Yokosuka on Thursday by a general order signed by Rear Adm. James Kelly, Commander Naval Forces Japan.

According to the order Kelly signed Thursday, drinking in establishments on Yokosuka Naval Base must cease at midnight Sunday through Thursday and at 2 a.m. on weekends and holidays. Off-base rules are stricter for area bars, restaurants and public places, where the ban kicks in at 11 p.m. during the week and 1 a.m. on weekends and holidays.

Here is what set all of this off:

In ordering the drinking restrictions, Kelly cited the recent spate of alcohol-related crime as the reason for his action.

“Alcohol abuse in particular continues to be a root cause of nearly all incidents of inappropriate conduct,” Kelly said in a news release. “We must change this fact.”

The new policy is pretty much the same one in place in Korea. Will this policy work to reduce incidents? I think there is ample evidence to suggest that it does, because USFK has not had a GI murder a Korean national in 5 years. The policy did not stop the one drunk driving, man slaughter case in 2003 where a Korean woman was killed by a drunk Osan soldier. Despite this incident the overall crime rate for USFK soldiers in down. However, even if this policy does reduce incidents overall it doesn’t matter because the incidents that still do happen get so closely scrutinized in the media that it appears to the general public that GI behavior has not improved when statistics say otherwise.