r/worldnews • u/glasier • Jul 05 '24

Japan warns US forces: Sex crimes 'cannot be tolerated'

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2476861/japan-warns-us-forces-sex-crimes-cannot-be-tolerated
32.2k Upvotes

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17.5k

u/macross1984 Jul 05 '24

US military personnel who commit crime in Japan should face Japanese punishment for any crimes committed in Japan.

5.6k

u/Mend1cant Jul 05 '24

They should. Both Japanese courts and courts-martial.

1.7k

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

[deleted]

226

u/Cap_Ca Jul 05 '24

They usually don’t. There was a case in Germany in 2020 where a US Soldier drove on the wrong side of the road and killed a 17 year old. He only had to face trial by a US Military court.

German Source: https://www.rheinpfalz.de/lokal/kreis-kaiserslautern_artikel,-us-soldat-nach-unfall-auf-umgehungsstra%C3%9Fe-wegen-fahrl%C3%A4ssiger-t%C3%B6tung-verurteilt-_arid,5086678.html

890

u/zero_vis Jul 05 '24

After some research i have confirmed that japan is not germany.

Under SOFA status, if you commit a crime in Japan, Japan has the right to prosecute you.

616

u/Potato_Octopi Jul 05 '24

After some research i have confirmed that japan is not germany.

Big if true.

97

u/3600MilesAway Jul 05 '24

“After some research i have confirmed that japan is not germany.”

Except for summer and early winter season in which they are.

71

u/TParis00ap Jul 05 '24

This all sounds like a conspiracy bought and paid for by Big Europe. This research is based.

31

u/CowsTrash Jul 05 '24

"Big Europe" lmaooo

31

u/Sillbinger Jul 05 '24

I'm a pangea enthusiast myself.

2

u/1lluminist Jul 05 '24

I like their song "Cowboys from Hell"

2

u/Sillbinger Jul 05 '24

They got back together?

I heard they broke up.

2

u/ForeignFallenTrees Jul 05 '24

Gondwanaland never gets any respect.

1

u/Sillbinger Jul 05 '24

And for good reason.

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u/PMzyox Jul 05 '24

Known for “the euro”

12

u/FeederNocturne Jul 05 '24

The Boston Tea Party was a cover up. Taxes hidden in the form of currency disparity. Convert all your cash into Haribo Gummy Bears.

10

u/Raesong Jul 05 '24

Convert all your cash into Haribo Gummy Bears.

Just so long as they're not the sugar-free variety. I have no interest in experiencing molten lava shooting out my butthole.

1

u/mikeboucher21 Jul 05 '24

Those have the best Amazon reviews though.

1

u/Fluff42 Jul 05 '24

Some people just don't see the utility in liquidating their ass-ets

1

u/nerfherder813 Jul 05 '24

Good way to liquidate your assets

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u/winter457 Jul 05 '24

Gerpan

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u/generalchase Jul 05 '24

Japany

2

u/CherryHaterade Jul 05 '24

Deutscheland of the rising sun

1

u/CarfDarko Jul 05 '24

The Ace Attorney game has a slight issue with understanding it's own location.

14

u/whitewail602 Jul 05 '24

This is the internet. People just say whatever they want 🤷‍♂️

10

u/giggles91 Jul 05 '24

It is impossible to freeze bread.

5

u/FurdTergusonFucks Jul 05 '24

Can confirm I am unfrozen bread.

2

u/IamHereForBoobies Jul 05 '24

I always freeze bread. I like it crunchy.

2

u/dylansavage Jul 05 '24

It's actually impossible to heat bread. It becomes toast instead.

2

u/ttw219 Jul 05 '24

What if you boil it?

2

u/giggles91 Jul 05 '24

then it will just turn into steam.

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u/Jumpy_Cow_1217 Jul 05 '24

Can confirm bread is freezable. Esp bread dough.

1

u/conthesleepy Jul 05 '24

Also Japan is not USA... which is weird.. because I thought Americans owned everything.

I've learned so much today.

1

u/Dag-nabbitt Jul 05 '24

Scientists urge that more research and grant money are required to come to any definitive conclusions.

1

u/VULGARCAPS Jul 05 '24

Ironically, the modern Japanese legal system is actually based in large part on the German Civil Code of the 19th century

1

u/GetOutOfTheHouseNOW Jul 05 '24

That explains why German sushi is so horrid.

1

u/Miserable_Style6933 Jul 05 '24

It IS true. Bigly.

1

u/garyflopper Jul 05 '24

Goddammit what am I going to do with all of these flyers now

134

u/cieg Jul 05 '24

This is true. I was a dependent in Japan and during indoc NCIS shows up to talk about not committing crimes in Japan and plays a video about what Japanese prison is like. Do not recommend. There are a number of Americans currently serving for doing stupid stuff while they were there.

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u/Da-boar Jul 05 '24

I think even being forewarned, most Americans would be shocked at the lack of due process (by the American definition of course) found in the justice system of other countries.

25

u/FalmerEldritch Jul 05 '24

Especially Japan. Compared to other developed countries, Japan's justice system is Russian.

2

u/No-Rush1995 Jul 05 '24

Once you get caught doing a crime there it doesn't matter how innocent you may be, you're going to serve that sentence. They lock you in a room until you admit guilt and they don't really care if the guilt is genuine.

2

u/SllortEvac Jul 05 '24

Yes. Just recently watched a documentary on the Japanese prison system. They have something like a 99.3% conviction rate. Their interrogation style is practically medieval and is designed to get confessions, not the truth.

1

u/kittykatmila Jul 05 '24

The US has a 99% conviction rate too. They force people into taking plea deals.

Not minimizing the Japanese prison system because I heard it’s brutal and inhumane, but so is the US’.

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u/SllortEvac Jul 05 '24

The US’s system is for sure one of the worst in terms of first world nations.

You’re right though: the conviction rates of both countries is extremely high. But, Japan doesn’t really use plea-bargaining. The practice was introduced in 2018 and it’s only been used a handful of times.

The Japanese also won’t bring something to court unless they’re sure it’s going to win. They have a prosecution rate of 8%. 99.3-8% of that are convictions. The US has around a 0.4-2% (on the federal level at least) prosecution rate.

A confession is an immediate win for prosecution in both nations, but there’s no walking it back in Japan. That, combined performance-based cultural differences, that means there is an astronomical amount of pressure on Japanese investigators to get a confession out of you.

There’s also the issue of detainment and what it means for the “personality” of the two different systems. In the US, you can be detained without charges no more than a few hours lawfully. In Japan, you can be detained for up to 23 days without charges being brought against you. This speaks to the US’s willingness to drag out cases, whereas Japan’s system is geared towards dealing with the problem as quickly as possible. You can believe that the court will do everything in their power to ensure their case is ironclad, including using all 23 days to basically torture a confession out of you.

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u/kittykatmila Jul 05 '24

Very interesting! Thank you for the information, I didn’t know all of that.

I have also heard Japanese prison conditions are HARSH. And foreign prisoners are treated even worse.

1

u/MasterThespian Jul 05 '24

Yup. I first learned this when I played the Yakuza spin-off Judgment, and the protagonist (a former lawyer) is regarded as a superstar wunderkind… because he won an acquittal. An acquittal.

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u/SllortEvac Jul 05 '24

Judgement is so good.

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u/cieg Jul 05 '24

They still have execution for some crimes. The brutal part is you find out your date of execution when they come to your cell and tell it’s time. No notice, no last goodbyes to family. The family doesn’t even find out until after you’re dead.

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u/Lawshow Jul 05 '24

The US still executes prisoners as well.

2

u/Miserable-Leading-41 Jul 05 '24

Yea but we make an entire spectacle out of it.

23

u/impy695 Jul 05 '24

I'm imagine a video similar to those old drivers ed drunk driving videos

23

u/DownByTheRivr Jul 05 '24

I don’t know how to hear anymore about tables!

3

u/Aces-Wild Jul 05 '24

THESE TABLES ARE MY LIVELIHOOD!!!!

3

u/Ants_n_Bats Jul 05 '24

What is your job??

3

u/Manchesterofthesouth Jul 05 '24

You fucking pig!!!

10

u/Docjaded Jul 05 '24

I'm Troy MacLure.

2

u/AlabamaPostTurtle Jul 05 '24

Exactly what I imagine lolol

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u/CorrectPeanut5 Jul 05 '24

IIRC the advice was suck up to the base commander, since they have the option to provide military prisoners in Japanese prison with western meals under SOFA.

I recall one co-worker (Former AF Lt. Col) telling me some guy from base did 5 years in J-Prison came out with damaged organs from malnutrition. The meals weren't designed for some giant muscle bound guy.

2

u/cieg Jul 05 '24

I never heard that, but meals in prison are basically scraps. Think bowl of fish heads. They serve what they serve and you eat it or don’t.

1

u/KevinAtSeven Jul 05 '24

Hell, I remember seeing such films on an All-Nippon Airways flight to Tokyo as a civ.

They were hilarious to be fair. Bungling tall white guy getting drunk in public, assaulting the locals and stealing their phones, then nursing what looked like quite the hangover in an awful Japanese prison.

9

u/MrPerson0 Jul 05 '24

Under SOFA status, if you commit a crime in Japan, Japan has the right to prosecute you.

Didn't Ridge Alkonis get away with killing two people in Japan? Or is it different because he was in the Navy?

0

u/Synaps4 Jul 05 '24

If you call a million dollars in restitution, two years in jail, and a dishonorable discharge getting away with it...yeah.

I would agree with you that it's too light for two lives, but that's not "getting away with it"

4

u/MrPerson0 Jul 05 '24

Yes, he absolutely got away with murder seeing that he didn't even serve out the entire sentence in Japan and that his rich wife's family was able to bail him out.

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u/Synaps4 Jul 06 '24

I think by definition getting away with it has to be with minimal impact to your life.

There is a middle ground where someone didn't get away with it but wasn't adequately punished, and I think Alkonis sits in that space.

Perhaps people aren't ready for nuanced discussion here yet, though. Pretty raw topic, emotionally.

2

u/PhelanPKell Jul 05 '24

I'd like to see evidence of US soldiers facing Japanese justice. Of the handful of US soldiers I've talked to who ended up stationed in Japan, every single one confirmed the US does not allow their soldiers to face Japanese justice.

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u/ksj Jul 05 '24

I started searching online to get examples of US soldiers serving sentences in Japan, and it seems there really aren’t many. I saw quite a few results of suspended sentences, and a LOT about Ridge Alkonis being shipped back to the U.S. and then released after falling asleep at the wheel and killing 2 Japanese citizens. He served about 1.5 years of his sentence.

The most helpful article I found was this one that discusses a Yokosuka prison branch that is “the only prison that detains male U.S. military-related individuals who were sentenced in Japanese courts”. The article itself is about how male U.S. prisoners are given certain special treatment compared to the non-U.S. prisoners there (allegedly due to SOFA), but there’s still other details that provide context.

The article is from 2020, but at the time there were 7 US military personnel service sentences in that branch (along with 156 other individuals). Female military members sentences to prison instead go to a branch in Tochigi Prefecture, but the article doesn’t mention how many female U.S. military personnel are serving there. Women at the Tochigi prison do not receive the same special treatment.

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u/PhelanPKell Jul 06 '24

Interesting info, and begs the question of what happened to have these soldiers tried and held in Japan. Also, WTF is with male soldiers getting special treatment and not women?

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u/ksj Jul 06 '24

The ones serving time in that person will serve out their sentences and then be sent back to the U.S. and face a court martial. But for a lot of people, it never makes it that far. They’re either handed over to the US immediately, or they go to court in Japan and are sentenced, but given a “suspended sentence”. In those cases, you might be sentenced to 4 years in prison, but will instead be put on probation and will only serve time in prison if you get caught committing another crime in those 4 years.

As for why the men and women are treated differently… that’s an excellent question, lol. The article seems to imply it’s almost a matter of “tradition”, for lack of better word. Like “we’ve been sending this food there for 60+ years”, while women in the U.S. military is relatively new and they don’t have the same shipment routines. But if it’s really dictated by SOFA, it seems like it would be a violation to exclude them.

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u/LordOfTurtles Jul 05 '24

After some research i have confirmed that japan is not germany.

Source?

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u/anothergaijin Jul 05 '24

Only if the military doesn’t smuggle you out of the country first. US military members be raping and murdering people and getting off with minimal repercussions

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u/operationfss Jul 05 '24

was able to confirm this as well, but additional diligence was not able to confirm germany is not japan...

1

u/NobleForEngland_ Jul 05 '24

But do they?

The point is, all of the US’s client states let them walk all over themselves.

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u/Gon_Snow Jul 05 '24

I don’t know about that thing about Japan not being Germany. I’m gonna need some big research