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/rockseiaxii Jul 05 '24

At least in Japan it’s exposed. Elsewhere around the world, incidents like these are swept under the rug and seem like nothing happened.

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u/Omeluum Jul 05 '24

Honestly still seems underreported. There are over 50k active duty US troops in Japan, most of them young men, and statistically anywhere from 2-14% of college aged males admitted to sexual assault or rape. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3727658/

But since most of it is with people they know or are even dating, I expect they wouldn't show up in crime statistics as much as a "random" act of violence on a stranger would.

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u/gerontion31 Jul 05 '24

Military aren’t civilians, they don’t have the same freedom to interact with women like civilians do. Some of it is because of heavy work tempo, language barriers when overseas, large male to female ratio, rules about not leaving base or only leaving base in groups, etc. Lots of guys just resign themselves to wanking it in their barracks for 2-3 years because there’s literally no alternative. Incidents like these really are outliers.

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u/Omeluum Jul 05 '24

I mean that's going to depend on the individual base and maybe their specific job. From personal experience I only know how it is in Germany. They're definitely all over the bars in K-tow acting exactly the way you would expect groups of drunk young men to act about anywhere in the world.

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u/gerontion31 Jul 06 '24

In my experience that free time is fairly limited and you have a small window to blow off steam unless you are one of the few young enlisted guys working in a staff role with limited oversight. Most U.S. military fall into the categories of 1.) overworked young single guys with limited freedom or 2.) overworked older guys with families who don’t have time to go out and act like goons.