In 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco was signed by the Allies and Japan, which restored its formal sovereignty. At the same time, the U.S. and Japan signed the Japan-America Security Alliance. By this treaty, USFJ is responsible for the defense of Japan. As part of this agreement, the Japanese government requested that the U.S. military bases remain in Japan and agreed to provide funds and various interests specified in the Status of Forces Agreement. At the expiration of the treaty, the United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. The status of the United States Forces Japan was defined in the U.S.–Japan Status of Forces Agreement. This treaty is still in effect, and it forms the basis of Japan's foreign policy.
During the Vietnam War, U.S. military bases in Japan, especially those in the Okinawa Prefecture, were used as important strategic and logistic bases. In 1970, the Koza riot occurred against the U.S. military presence on Okinawa. Strategic bombers were deployed to the bases on Okinawa. Before the 1972 reversion of the island to Japanese administration, it has been speculated but never confirmed that up to 1,200 nuclear weapons may have been stored at Kadena Air Base during the 1960s.[4]
The Japanese government paid ¥217 billion (US$2.0 billion) in 2007[5] as annual host-nation support called Omoiyari Yosan (思いやり予算, sympathy budget or compassion budget).[6] As of the 2011 budget, such payment was no longer to be referred to as omoiyari yosan or "sympathy budget".[7] Japan compensates 75% ($4.4 billion) of U.S. basing costs.[8]
Immediately after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, 9,720 dependents of United States military and government civilian employees in Japan evacuated the country, mainly to the United States.[9]
The relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Henoko Bay was resolved in December 2013 with the signing of a landfill agreement by the governor of Okinawa. Under the terms of the U.S.-Japan agreement, 5,000 U.S. Marines were relocated to Guam, and 4,000 Marines were sent to other Pacific locations such as Hawaii or Australia, while around 10,000 Marines were to remain on Okinawa.[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] No timetable for the Marines redeployment was announced, but The Washington Post reported that U.S. Marines would leave Okinawa as soon as suitable facilities on Guam and elsewhere were ready.[13] The relocation move was expected to cost $8.6 billion,[10] including a $3.1 billion cash commitment from Japan for the move to Guam as well as for developing joint training ranges on Guam and on Tinian and Pagan in the Northern Mariana Islands.[11] Certain parcels of land on Okinawa which were leased for use by the American military were supposed to be turned back to Japanese control via a long-term phased return process according to the agreement.[13] These returns have been ongoing since 1972.[citation needed] In October 2020, Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz was activated on Guam. The new base is meant to house Marines relocated from Okinawa, with the final relocation planned for 2025.[17]
In March 2024, media reporting suggested that the organizational remit and status of USFJ would be changed--possibly including the creation of a new joint task force as well as the elevation of the USFJ commander's rank--as part of a broader 'upgrading' of the U.S.-Japan alliance to be announced during the April 2024 visit of Japanese Prime MinisterFumio Kishida to the United States.[18] As part of that visit, Prime Minister Kishida and U.S. PresidentJoe Biden stated the following in a Joint Leaders' Statement:
Recognizing the speed at which regional security challenges evolve and to ensure our bilateral Alliance structures meet these critical changes, we announce our intention to bilaterally upgrade our respective command and control frameworks to enable seamless integration of operations and capabilities and allow for greater interoperability and planning between U.S. and Japanese forces in peacetime and during contingencies. More effective U.S.-Japan Alliance command and control will strengthen deterrence and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific in the face of pressing regional security challenges. We call on our respective defense and foreign ministries to develop this new relationship through the Security Consultative Committee (our security “2+2”).[19]
In July 2024, DOD announced that USFJ would be upgraded to a joint operational headquarters. According to one DOD official, this will result in USFJ transitioning from a primarily "administrative command" into an organization with more operational and warfighting responsibilities.[20]
As of May 2022, the stationing of U.S. military personnel at military facilities across Okinawa Island remains a hotly-contested and controversial issue, with the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma often being at the forefront of protests against the presence of U.S. military presence on the island.[21][22][23] Okinawa makes up only 0.6% of the nation's land area;[24] yet, approximately 62% of United States bases in Japan (exclusive use only) are on Okinawa.[25][26] Despite an agreement to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma first being reached by the Japanese and U.S. governments in 1996, progress to relocate the base has stalled because of the protests as well as environmental concerns resulting from the construction, operation and relocation of the base.[21][22][27][28]
Do they need bases in Henoko or Futenma? Are they unnecessary? Even aside from this discussion, security is changing.—Former Japan Minister of DefenseFumio Kyuma[29]
The U.S. government employs over eight thousand Master Labor Contract/Indirect Hire Agreement workers on Okinawa (per the Labor Management Organization), not including Okinawan contract workers.[30]
There is also debate over the Status of Forces Agreement since it covers a variety of administrative technicalities blending the systems which control how certain situations are handled between the U.S.'s and Japan's legal framework.[31]
Surveys among Japanese
In May 2010, a survey of the Okinawan people conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun and the Ryūkyū Shimpō, found that 71% of Okinawans surveyed thought that the presence of Marines on Okinawa was not necessary (15% said it was necessary). When asked what they thought about 62% of exclusive use United States Forces Japan bases being concentrated on Okinawa, 50% said that the number should be reduced and 41% said that the bases should be removed. When asked about the US-Japan security treaty, 55% said it should be a peace treaty, 14% said it should be abolished, and 7% said it should be maintained.[32]
Many of the bases, such as Yokota Air Base, Naval Air Facility Atsugi and Kadena Air Base, are located in the vicinity of residential districts, and local citizens have complained about excessive aircraft noise.[33][34][35] The 2014 poll by Ryūkyū Shimpō found that 80% of surveyed Okinawans want the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma moved out of the prefecture.[36] On 25 June 2018, Okinawan residents protested against the construction of a new airfield. Activists holding placards and banners went to sea on 70 boats and ships. Protesters urged the Japanese authorities to stop the expansion of the U.S. military presence on the island. Some of the boats went to the guarded construction site, where they came across the Coast Guard patrol vessels. Some activists were arrested for entering a prohibited zone.[37]
On 11 August 2018, about 70,000 protesters gathered at a park in the prefecture capital of Naha to protest the planned relocation of a U.S. military base on the southern Japanese island. Opponents of the relocation said the plan to move Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from a crowded neighborhood to a less populated coastal site would not only affect the environment, but would also go against local wishes to have the base moved from the island entirely.[38]
Between 1972 and 2009, U.S. servicemen committed 5,634 criminal offenses, including 25 murders, 385 burglaries, 25 arsons, 127 rapes, 306 assaults, and 2,827 thefts.[40] Yet, per Marine Corps Installations Pacific data, U.S. service members are convicted of far fewer crimes than local Okinawans.[41] According to the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, when U.S. personnel crimes are committed both off-duty and off-base, they should be prosecuted under the Japanese law.[42] In 2008 the National Police Agency released its annual criminal statistics that included activity within the Okinawa prefecture. These findings held American troops were only convicted of 53 crimes per 10,000 U.S. male servicemen, while Okinawan males were convicted of 366 crimes per 10,000. The crime rate found a U.S. serviceman on Okinawa to be 86% less likely to be convicted of a crime by the Japanese government than an Okinawan male.[43]
In more recent history, "crimes ranging from rape to assault and hit-and-run accidents by U.S. military personnel, dependents and civilians have long sparked protests in the prefecture," stated The Japan Times.[44] "A series of horrific crimes by present and former U.S. military personnel stationed on Okinawa has triggered dramatic moves to try to reduce the American presence on the island and in Japan as a whole," commented The Daily Beast in 2009.[45]
In 1995, the abduction and rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl by two U.S. Marines and one U.S. sailor led to demands for the removal of all U.S. military bases in Japan. Other controversial incidents include the Girard incident in 1957, the Michael Brown Okinawa assault incident in 2002, the death of the Kinjo family in 1996, and the hit-and-run death of Yuki Uema in 1998. In February 2008, a 38-year-old U.S. Marine based on Okinawa was arrested in connection with the reported rape of a 14-year-old Okinawan girl.[46] This triggered waves of protest against American military presence on Okinawa and led to tight restrictions on off-base activities.[47][48] Although the accuser withdrew her charges, the U.S. military court-martialed the suspect and sentenced him to four years in prison under the stricter rules of the military justice system.[49]
U.S. Forces Japan designated 22 February as a "Day of Reflection" for all U.S. military facilities in Japan and established the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Task Force in an effort to prevent similar incidents.[50] In November 2009, Staff Sergeant Clyde "Drew" Gunn, a U.S. Army soldier stationed at Torii Station was involved in a hit-and-run accident of a pedestrian in Yomitan Village on Okinawa. In April 2010, Gunn was charged with failing to render aid and vehicular manslaughter,[51] and he was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail.[52]
In 2013, Seaman Christopher Browning and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker were found guilty by the Naha District Court of raping and robbing a woman in a parking lot in October. Both admitted committing the crime. The case outraged Okinawans and sparked tougher restrictions for all U.S. military personnel in Japan, including a curfew and drinking restrictions.[53]
On 13 May 2013, in a controversial statement, Toru Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka and co-leader of the Japan Restoration Association said to a senior American military official at the Marine Corps base on Okinawa that "we can't control the sexual energy of these brave Marines." He said that Marines should make more use of the local adult entertainment industry to reduce sexual crimes against local women.[54] Hashimoto also spoke of the necessity of former Japanese Army comfort women and of prostitutes for the U.S. military in other countries such as Korea.[54]
In June 2016, after a civilian worker at the base was charged with murdering a Japanese woman, thousands of people protested on Okinawa.[55] Organizers estimated turnout at 65,000 people, which was the largest anti-base protests on Okinawa since 1995.[56] In November 2017, an intoxicated U.S. service member was arrested following a vehicle crash on Okinawa that killed the other driver.[57]
Although other crimes committed by U.S. servicemen (as well as crimes by Japanese) have occurred in Japan, the Status of Forces Agreement protects servicemen and their employees. Suspects are usually handed over U.S. bases first so Japanese judicial investigations and trials would be severely restricted. Many offenders who have committed sexual assaults and murders have also escaped trials sometimes through transfer, release or honorary discharges when they are in barracks, which is one of the reasons for antipathy from the victims and other local citizens along with the Japanese government's indecision.[58][59]
U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in 2016
Osprey deployment
In October 2012, twelve MV-22 Ospreys were transferred to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to replace aging Vietnam-era Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters.[60] In October 2013, an additional 12 Ospreys arrived. Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto explained that the Osprey aircraft is safe, adding that two recent accidents were "caused by human factors".[61] Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda also stated that the Japanese government was convinced of the MV-22's safety.[62] Various incidents involving V-22 Ospreys have occurred on Okinawa.[63][better source needed] On 5 April 2018, it was announced that the U.S. Air Force would officially deploy CV-22 Osprey aircraft at its Yokota Air Base.
Environmental concerns
Protestor holding a "no base" sign opposing the relocation of MCAS Futenma
Environmental concerns have taken the forefront of the debate over the presence of U.S. military forces on Okinawa.[64] Since the late 1990s, environmental concerns elevated by both local residents as well as larger Okinawan and Japanese environmental action groups and independent activists have often resulted in public protests and demonstrations against the relocation of existing U.S. military bases and the construction of replacement facilities, which have been labelled by some as examples of "modern colonialism".[65][66][67] In particular, lingering environmental concerns over the disruption or destruction of coastal and marine habitats off the shores of Okinawa from construction, relocation and operation of U.S. military bases on Okinawa, has resulted in the protracted and continuing delayal of plans to relocate military facilities, such as Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.[21][27]
Okinawa dugong lawsuit
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, initial plans to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a new facility located offshore in Henoko Bay were met with strong resistance after sightings of dugong were reported in areas surrounding territory earmarked for the relocated airbase.[68] A critically endangered species, dugong were traditionally fished and hunted throughout Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands.[68] This drew the attention of local, national and international environmental action groups, who raised concerns that land reclamation projects tied to the construction of an offshore airbase in Henoko Bay would result in the destruction of nearby dugong habitats and coastal ecosystems.[69] Despite this, plans were set forth to continue ahead with the relocation of the base, notably, flouting the results of a 1997 referendum where the majority voted to reject a replacement facility.[68]
In opposition to this, in September 2003, a group of Okinawan, Japanese and U.S. environmental organizations filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Federal Court to protest the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.[68] This lawsuit, initially entitled Okinawa Dugong v. Rumsfeld, argued that the U.S. Department of Defense failed to consider the impacts that relocating the base would have upon the local dugong population, in turn, violating the U.S. National Historic Preservation Act.[69] This case was closed in January 2008; notably for the plaintiffs, it was ruled that the Department of Defense, by not considering the impacts of the relocated airbase upon the local dugong population, had in fact violated the National Historic Preservation Act, thus delaying the relocation of the base.[68]
Water contamination
Concerns over water contamination have also exacerbated recent tensions surrounding the presence of U.S. military bases in Okinawa.[70] In June 2020, following the announcement of an earlier leak of firefighting foam from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in April 2020, a water quality study conducted by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment published findings of elevated contamination levels of PFOS and PFOA at 37 different water sources near U.S. military bases and industrial areas which exceeded provisional national targets.[71] Further incidents concerning the release of the cancer-inducing toxins also occurred in August 2021, further worsening tensions over the presence of 'alarming' levels of these toxic chemicals.[72][73]
Subsequent tests around Kadena Air Base, specifically the training site 50 meters west of Dakujaku River, confirmed severe contamination in the water system with PFAS chemicals.[74] These chemicals reach 10s of meters underground while plumes spread for several kilometers from these contaminated training sites flowed into nearby wells and waterways of Dakujaku River and Hija River which contaminated the drinking water of 450,000 residents.[74] These toxic chemicals originate from firefighting foams which contain PFAS and were used at training sites during the 1970s and 80s.[74] However, the U.S. and Japanese governments say that the source of the issue cannot be confirmed.[74]
Facilities
List of current facilities
Military facilities of the United States in Japan, 2016U.S. military bases in JapanU.S. military facilities in Okinawa Prefecture, 2010
The USFJ headquarters is at Yokota Air Base, about 30 km west of central Tokyo.
The U.S. military installations in Japan and their managing branches are as follows:
On Okinawa, U.S. military installations occupy about 10.4% of the total land usage. Approximately 74.7% of all the U.S. military facilities in Japan are located on the island of Okinawa.[citation needed]
List of former facilities
The United States has returned some facilities to Japanese control. Some are used as military bases of the JSDF; others have become civilian airports or government offices; many are factories, office buildings or residential developments in the private sector. Due to the Special Actions Committee on Okinawa, more land on Okinawa is in the process of being returned. These areas include Camp Kuwae (also known as Camp Lester), MCAS Futenma, areas within Camp Zukeran (also known as Camp Foster) located about 9,900 acres (40 km2) of the Northern Training Area, Aha Training Area, Gimbaru Training Area (also known as Camp Gonsalves), a small portion of the Makiminato Service Area (also known as Camp Kinser), and Naha Port.[citation needed]
Army:
Army Composite Service Group Area (later, Chinen Service Area), Nanjō, Okinawa
Army STRATCOM Warehouse (later, Urasoe Warehouse), Urasoe, Okinawa
^"About USFJ". USFJ. Retrieved 29 May 2021. Originally established at Fuchu Air Station on July 1, 1957, USFJ, with its U.S. Army, U.S Marine Corps, U.S Navy, and U.S Air Force elements, consists of approximately 54,000 military personnel, 45,000 dependents, 8,000 DoD civilian and contractor employees, and 25,000 Japanese workers. U.S. forces are stationed in Japan pursuant to the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security of 1960.
^Morris-Suzuki, Tessa (2000). "Under the umbrella: co-existence with the military is not so peaceful for the people and the environment of Okinawa, Japan". New Internationalist (325): 34–35.
