May 14th, 2013 at 10:01 pm » Comments (28)

The Mayor of Osaka sure knows how to draw attention to himself for the wrong reasons: U.S. servicemembers should consider soliciting prostitutes to control their “sexual energies,” the mayor of Osaka said Monday. It was a suggestion that apparently didn’t get very far with a Marine commander in Okinawa. Toru Hashimoto, who also co-leads the Japan Restoration Party in the Japanese national parliament, told reporters Monday that he visited with Marine Corps Air Station Futenma’s commander last month and told him that servicemembers should make more use of Japan’s legalized
Read the Rest…

May 9th, 2013 at 6:20 am » Comments (10)

Here is the latest from the territorial spat between Japan and China: China criticized Japan on Thursday for lodging a diplomatic protest against a Chinese state media commentary calling into question Japanese sovereignty over the southern Ryukyu Islands, which include Okinawa. The latest angry exchange could further strain tense relations between Asia’s two-largest economies, which are involved in a stand-off over a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. On Wednesday, the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece,
Read the Rest…

March 29th, 2013 at 4:43 am » Comments (0)

The whole Marine Corps Air Station Futenma relocation has so many similarities with the Yongsan Garrison relocation. Both are located in the middle of densely populated that causes locals to complain about it. When offered to move the base to a rural location people complained about that to. In the case of Yongsan Garrison when construction finally began outside of Pyeongtaek, Braveheart style protests, construction delays, and politics caused even more delays. I suspect Futenma once construction begins will follow the same pattern: CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Marine Corps Air
Read the Rest…

March 2nd, 2013 at 8:59 am » Comments (10)

The sailors who were accused of raping a Japanese woman on Okinawa have confessed and have been sentenced for their crime: NAHA, Okinawa — Two U.S. sailors were sentenced to prison Friday for gang-raping and robbing an Okinawan woman outside her apartment building. Seaman Christopher Browning, 24, received 10 years on charges of gang rape and robbery. Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, was sentenced to nine years for gang rape. “I felt like a monster” while listening to details of the rape, Dozierwalker testified this week. Both men
Read the Rest…

February 23rd, 2013 at 6:26 pm » Comments (9)

I never enjoy seeing people lose their livelihoods, but what did people on Okinawa expect was going to happen when it has gotten to the point that seems that every time a US servicemember passes gas in public it makes national headlines? CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese bar owners on Okinawa are urging the U.S. military to end its ban on off-base alcohol consumption, saying a steep drop-off in drinking among servicemembers is cutting deeply into their bottom lines. Since the military imposed a nighttime curfew in October and later
Read the Rest…

December 12th, 2012 at 7:38 am » Comments (12)

This just about everybody would agree with what the Harvard psychologist has to say in this below article because it is blatantly obvious: Some or all of the following rules now apply to U.S. servicemembers in Japan: Be home by 11, don’t drink in your home past 10, don’t go to a bar without another adult, don’t leave the house after more than one drink — and your teenager is allowed to stay out later than you. When the Oct. 16 arrest of two Texas-based sailors on rape charges on
Read the Rest…

October 29th, 2012 at 7:20 am » Comments (19)

Apparently the folks in Okinawa don’t like experiencing what the troops in Korea have had to put up with for many years with a few exceptions, a curfew: Colorful neon signs still blaze at bars outside Kadena Air Base, but the front doors are shut and there are no Americans in sight in the normally bustling Okinawa entertainment district. It’s a scene that’s become common at off-base watering holes frequented by servicemembers across Japan since a curfew was imposed Oct. 19 on all American military personnel following thealleged assault and rape of
Read the Rest…

October 17th, 2012 at 8:04 am » Comments (11)

Like US military leadership in Korea, now leaders in Japan have to deal with their own sexual assault incident:  Two U.S. Navy sailors were arrested Tuesday for the alleged rape and assault of an Okinawan woman, an incident that could further inflame anti-American sentiment on the island. Okinawa Prefectural Police said they arrested Seaman Christopher Browning and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker, both 23, after the alleged incident was reported to police by an acquaintance of the alleged victim. The alleged victim, who according to media reports is in
Read the Rest…

February 17th, 2012 at 9:23 am » Comments (1)

I find the issue of relocating of US Marines on Okinawa interesting because the plan to base US Marines on a new facility in a less populated area of Okinawa is very similar to what USFK went through trying to get the Camp Humphreys expansion plan passed that would consolidate US troops in area away from major cities.  And much like the Camp Humphreys expansion, the left in Japan is radically opposed to the move to relocate the Marines away from major population centers on the island.  However, if you
Read the Rest…

February 7th, 2012 at 7:17 am » Comments (14)

Now the delays and changes to the US plan to relocate Marines from the island now involves Korea: Some U.S. marines stationed in Okinawa will likely move to South Korea under a plan whereby the U.S. redeploys some 3,300 of the 18,000 marines on the Japanese island to other countries on a rotating basis. A South Korean government source said Monday the U.S. “has long wanted to redeploy some of its marines from Okinawa to Korea. Once Washington and Tokyo reach agreement on the status of the U.S. marines in
Read the Rest…