ISTANBUL 

A growing number of criminal cases, ranging from drunk driving to rape, are being filed against US soldiers in Japan, raising serious concerns.

There were 118 criminal cases involving US military personnel in Japan in 2023, and of those, 72, or 61%, were committed in Okinawa province, where US military-exclusive facilities are concentrated, according to Japanese news agency Mainichi Shimbun.

Okinawa province, which hosts 31 US military-exclusive facilities covering 70.3% of such sites nationwide by land area, is home to roughly half of the 50,000 US troops deployed in Japan under a bilateral security pact.

In 2022, Okinawa accounted for 51% of crimes committed by US military personnel in Japan, underscoring the disproportionate number caused by the region's high concentration of US bases.

According to the National Police Agency, 72 of the 118 cases involving US military personnel reported in Japan in 2023 occurred in Okinawa.

The remaining cases were divided among Kanagawa (19), Tokyo (10), Yamaguchi (8), Aomori (4), and Nagasaki (3).

In 2022, there were 106 cases, with 54 in Okinawa, 17 in Kanagawa, 14 in Tokyo, and 13 in Yamaguchi. Okinawa consistently had a significantly higher number of cases than other provinces in both years.

According to Okinawa Provincial Police data, 6,163 criminal cases involving US military personnel have occurred in the province since 1972, when Okinawa was returned to Japan from US control. Nearly half of these (3,034) were thefts, but there were also 398 cases of robbery, 134 rape, and 27 murder, indicating a significant number of other serious crimes.

The National Police Agency reported that in 2023, there were 67 cases in Japan where US military personnel were investigated for Road Traffic Act violations. Of these, 47 occurred in Okinawa province, with 43 involving drunk driving.

In 2023, Okinawa also saw seven traffic accidents involving US military personnel that resulted in injury or death, with four of the drivers being under the influence of alcohol.

“It is something that should not happen…These incidents are extremely regrettable, and when I think about the victims…I am deeply pained as a foreign minister,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said earlier this year.