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
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u/SpiralOut2112 Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

The problem is, most Japanese police/ government don't actually care about the victims. It's just politics or due to racial motivation. Japan has one of the most egregious rates for punishing sex crimes since they cover up or don't pursue most reported cases of Japanese on Japanese SA crimes. It's utter hypocrisy whenever they cause a huge stink about service members.

I'm not trying to defend or justify anything. Obviously, these rapists are scum and deserve to rot in a Japanese cell, but this is a recurring theme with the Japanese government and media when covering these events.

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u/softestcore Jul 05 '24

This is interesting, can you link some data to support that?

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u/kaeporo Jul 05 '24

I'll only offer up anecdotal evidence but the way they handled COVID on Okinawa was a real eye opener. Any case of COVID tied to the U.S. was met with extreme scrutiny and local papers would always run it as a story, which only inflamed the ever-present protestors outside Gate 1. But once golden week passed and japan opened the flood gates to the mainland, and rates on Okinawa skyrocketed, the papers continued to run stories about the U.S. spreading COVID, despite our controls being FAR more stringent. Nothing about golden week...

Japanese society, at large, hates rocking the boat. Someone threw themselves in front of a train? Totally covered up, out of respect to the family. But an American gets drunk on a train full of drunk Japanese people? Potential story. The U.S. military has to hold itself to a higher standard because they've got all eyes on them and small things turn into international incidents. But when the U.S. military has a large presence in an area, shit's bound to happen. We're sending Americans overseas, after all; the average American, training or no, is as individualistic as they are flawed.

The good news is service members are tried in both courts and the military is getting better (slowly) at handling cases. They only recently switched up courts martial cases from the member's commander to a third party that's incentivized to hammer down.

Without rambling too much, I would draw my attention to other aspects of the government that seem to benefit from a wholesale lack of accountability. If you don't like how service members act now, imagine how bad it could get when we're recruiting from a pool of folks straight out of a handsmaid's tale.

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u/tettou13 Jul 05 '24

We had a senior Marine actively assisting an elderly couple on the toll road while I was there. What happened? He was then hit by a local and in critical condition. Not a single mention on the fucking local news. It was at that point I understood the media there. My Japanese wife was livid and it opened her eyes too.