Okinawa Rape Grabs Headlines, Little Political Impact

Weekly Review #99: June 24, 2003

Okinawa Rape Grabs Headlines, Little Political Impact

John de Boer (Research Associate, GLOCOM)

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The arrest of yet another US military personnel in Okinawa on charges of rape this past week grabbed headlines in the international media. News of the crime was featured in major papers such as New York Times and the Washington Post and received the most coverage in national dailies of countries playing host to US troops and bases (ex. South Korea & the Gulf region). In Japan, an editorial (20 June) in the Asahi Shimbun called for the immediate revision of to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). While Japanese English dailies such as the Japan Times and the Mainichi News reported on Okinawa governor Keiichi Inamine's efforts to garner support for SOFA revision.

This arrest of a US marine for rape has forced US authorities to arrange a swift meeting, to be held within the next several weeks, between US and Japanese officials. On the agenda is the SOFA, which has not been revised since 1960. Although, Inamine's call for revision has been supported by the likes of Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, little if anything is expected to change. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who thwarted Ishihara's plans to run for premiership several months ago, has already come out clearly on the matter saying that, "the government is unlikely to meet immediately the Okinawa government's request for SOFA revision" (Linda Sieg, "U.S. to Hand Over Marine in Japan Rape Case", Reuters, 18 June).

Okinawans have always been secondary to interests that have long profited from the US-Japan alliance. The plight of Okinawans is well known. Okinawa hosts approximately seventy-five percent of all US forces in Japan who live on bases that occupy eleven percent of the Island. Since 1945, these people have endured crime, pollution, corruption and economic dependence stemming from this "security" arrangement. Most Okinawans have long protested the occupation, however, they have fallen victim to what the commander of US Marine Corp Bases in Japan, Lt. General W. C. Gregson, recently classified as, "the confluence of many, many interests" (Linda Sieg, "Okinawa's Strategic Value to Grow--Top U.S. Marine", Reuters, 20 June).

For US military strategists, Okinawa is of vital importance says Gregson, as it "facilitates the projection of US forces throughout Asia". The General predicts that improved mobility will increase this value. In return, the Japanese government has relieved itself of much of the burden related to national security and in the process has secured preferential access to US markets and US patents. In the loop are also many Okinawan land lords who profit from the long-term leasing of their land to US troops and object to their withdrawal.

That SOFA has not been revised in nearly 50 years despite over 5,000 crimes, including murder, rape and robbery, having been committed by US military personnel, civilian employees or dependents since 1972, demonstrates, with excruciating clarity, the low priority given to the well-being of the average Okinawan within the circles of power (Military Base Affairs Office 1999; 3-7).

As the Koizumi cabinet rushes to get laws passed that will allow Japan to make a military contribution to the Bush administration's plans for Iraq, very little attention is being given to people in Okinawa. Upon hearing about the rape, Koizumi expressed no more than "regret". His foreign minister used the same word.

While the strategic value of Okinawa as a launching pad for US led military conquests is heralded by politicians, the toll on the well-being of Okinawa's inhabitants is brushed aside as regretful. General Gregson argues that Okinawa's role in US military plans will heighten. For him the key is mobility. "If we have more mobility", says Gregson, "we can expand our involvement throughout the region". While this may sound like good news to US and Japanese policy makers who will profit from exploiting Okinawa, there is no doubt that Okinawans will continue to suffer. In this sense, the status of Okinawa certainly classifies under what Prof. John Dower calls "indefinite neo-colonial control". For Okinawans today, there seems little hope for a better future.

Shigeru Ishiba: Japan's hawk-in-chief

By Axel Berkofsky
Apr 10, 2003

Spying on North Korea, boosting Japan's military capabilities and attacking Pyongyang preemptively - these should be on Japan's defense policy agenda as far as Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba and other Japanese defense hawks are concerned.

Ishiba, known for chronic difficulties at holding his tongue when elaborating on Japan's defense policy, started his series of verbal blunders when heading a delegation to South Korea at the end of March.

Although Japanese-South Korean efforts to deal with the security situation on the Korean Peninsula were on his agenda, the Defense Agency chief chose to inform his hosts that attacking North Korea preemptively is not "unconstitutional" if Pyongyang were suspected of planning to launch a missile at Japan.

As usual, cautious rhetoric and a cool head are not for Ishiba with evil-doer North Korea on the agenda - regardless that the timing for another gaffe could hardly have been worse.

Japan's defense hawk-in-chief considered attacking North Korea on Fuji television only shortly after he agreed with his South Korean counterpart Cho Young-Kil to resolve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula peacefully.

The "good news" is that Ishiba still plans to let the United States do the dirty work, reportedly limiting Japan's role to logistical support for US military stationed on Japanese soil for now. "We will keep intact the policy of leaving necessary preemptive strikes to the US and there is no change in that policy," he said, confirming that Japan will still be watching from a distance should North Korea be next on the US list of countries to be "liberated".

At least for the time being, it seems.

"At some point, we have to inspect, however, how correct that policy is," he added, indicating that Japan might one day be obliged to move beyond the stage of helpful bystander if North Korea pulls the trigger.

This was not the first time, of course, that Ishiba had suggested launching an attack on North Korea to solve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. As recently as the end of February, he had the same idea, urging his country's armed forces to be prepared to attack North Korea before Pyongyang's missiles were on their way to downtown Tokyo. But he blamed the foreign media for his verbal blunder, claiming that the translators got it all wrong.

Back in Tokyo from his visit in Seoul, Ishiba switched back to diplomatic mode and announced that Tokyo and Seoul are in "nearly perfect agreement" on how to deal with North Korea and its occasional threats to send rogue missiles over East Asia.

Colleagues traveling with him, however, were less enthusiastic about the level of agreement. "While we stressed the necessity to protect Japan from North Korean missiles with a missile defense system, the South Koreans seemed hardly interested in mentioning the issue at all," complained a member of the Japanese delegation.

Government officials in Tokyo joined in, claiming that South Korea's rhetoric to strengthen efforts to solve the crisis on the Korean dialogue was no more than an attempt to patch up things temporarily.

Ishiba and like-minded members of the defense establishment seem more interested in preparing Japan for an attack anyway and last Friday urged the government to upgrade Japan's current missile defense capabilities.

Since 1999, Japan and the US have conducted joint research to develop the Navy Theater Wide Defense system which, if feasible, will be deployed on high-tech Aegis warship to intercept ballistic missiles. The research, however, could take up to another two years and Japan has yet to make up its mind whether it wants to move on to the development phase.

Time is quickly running out for Japan, warn Defense Agency officials who for their part seem eager to shoot down missiles long before Japan's politicians get around to making up their minds.

After the US "successfully tested" the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile system in the war against Iraq, the Japanese military is now urging the government to order the PAC-3 system if Japan wants to shoot down missiles without US help.

The Air Self-Defense Force is already equipped with the missile system's earlier version (PAC-2), which the US used during the first Gulf War to shoot down Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles targeted at Israel. Unlike the PAC-3 system, the older PAC-2 version, however, is not able to shoot down North Korean Nodong missiles.

According to Defense Agency sources, North Korea has already deployed up to 100 of its medium-range Nodong ballistic missiles, which have a range of 1,300 kilometers - capable of hitting any target in Japan.

Japan, therefore, needs the upgrade badly, confirms Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who put the advanced US Patriot surface-to-air missile system, the missiles and software that comes with it on top of the Defense Agency's shopping list for 2004. Spy technology that is "made in Japan", meanwhile, was fired into orbit for the first time on March 28, enabling Tokyo to keep an eye on its neighbor with nuclear ambitions. Although the Defense Agency promises that the second and third generation of Japanese spy satellites will catch up with the US high-tech eyes eventually, the Japanese taxpayer for now ended up paying US$3.77 billion for a pair of satellites that see less than US satellites could during the Cold War.

While Koizumi thinks that the spy satellites and missile defense system will "improve" Japan's negotiating position with North Korea, Pyongyang for its part calls Japan's efforts to beef up its military capabilities a "hostile act".

Japan, however, might get much more "hostile" if it is up to Ishiba.

He grabbed another headline asking the government to equip the country's military with offensive capabilities enabling Japan to conduct a preemptive strike "if necessary". He reportedly requested US state-of-the-art equipment and, according to the Japanese daily newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, thought that buying a couple Tomahawks from the US soon is "worth considering".

While political commentators in Japan are indeed beginning to fear that the Defense Agency chief's rhetoric is taking a prolonged break from common sense, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's secretary general Taku Yamazaki finds it only "politically difficult" to equip the country's armed forces with military offensive capabilities.

The Japanese government has no plans to expand the country's armed forces' mission from defending Japan to attacking its neighbors and sent Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda to set the record straight.

"The government is not at all considering to buy Tomahawks," said Fukuda, who disappointed the defense hawks by claiming that deploying offensive capabilities is a non-starter given Japan's "self-defense-only policy".

It seems Koizumi and his aides remain busy keeping the country's defense establishment in check. More work, however, is yet to be done as long as the hawks send their minds on vacation while ordering their mouths to be working overtime.

Pull unwanted U.S. troops out

Saturday, March 1, 2003
By RICHARD HALLORAN
Special to The Japan Times

HONOLULU -- As a tsunami of anti-Americanism circles the globe from Seoul to Jakarta and on to Paris and Berlin, a focal point of protest is the visible presence of U.S. military forces.

An American backlash against that vehemence has begun. The Bush administration is reviewing the deployment of U.S. forces abroad and more than one newspaper columnist, evidently reflecting the neoisolationist streak in America, has declared that the United States should not be where it is not wanted.

U.S. Secretary of the Army Thomas White recently said the Pentagon was seeking to determine what would be "the most appropriate posture" that would "better fit the situation as it currently exists."

Earlier, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said: "Eleven years after the end of the Cold War, there is a school of thought to rethink the numbers and types of forces we have in different locations." He continued: "We are seeking a posture that is U.S. presence suitable to each region."

Influential New York Times columnist William Safire wrote recently: "Because the U.S. is not an imperialist power, it does not belong where a democratic nation decides America is unwanted."

In the post-Cold War world, an American looking out at the world would see five nations of greatest importance to U.S. security: Canada and Mexico on the northern and southern borders, Britain across the Atlantic, and Japan and Australia in the western reaches of the Pacific. In addition, the U.S. has a strong commitment to the security of Israel.

Here are suggestions for future U.S. deployments from South Korea to Saudi Arabia once the current disputes with Iraq and North Korea have been settled by diplomacy or military force. The U.S. cannot back away from those confrontations without losing the confidence of allies or credibility with adversaries.

The U.S. should begin by getting reaffirmations of treaties with South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Australia.

South Korea, site of vociferous anti-Americanism, should be asked whether it wants to keep its security treaty or abrogate it. South Korea's new president, Roh Moo Hyun, has called for a "rebalance" in relations with the U.S.

Whatever South Korea decides, the U.S. Second Infantry Division there should be relocated to the U.S. where it would be available, as it is not now, for duty anywhere. The U.S. Eighth Army headquarters in Seoul should be dissolved and absorbed into the U.S. Army Pacific Command in Hawaii. A small contingent could be left behind as a symbolic United Nations Command.

Osan Air Base should be closed and warplanes transferred to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, where anti-American demonstrations are mostly directed against U.S. Marine ground forces. Those troops could be relocated to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands in the Central Pacific, or to the northern coast of Australia where they would be within easy reach of Southeast Asia.

Australia has been a close ally since World War II, and became reliant on the U.S. after Britain's decision in 1968 to withdraw most of its military forces from east of Suez. Australians, official and otherwise, are quick to point out that dependence on the U.S. does not make Canberra follow Washington blindly. There is also a fair amount of anti-Americanism in their nation. Nonetheless, the Australians and the U.S. have begun exploratory discussions about basing U.S. Marines there.

The U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, whose home port is Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, could stay there, as only Japanese leftists appear to be unhappy with the alliance with America.

Thailand, which has no U.S. military bases, maintains what appear to be balanced security relations with the U.S. The Cobra Gold joint ground maneuvers for a month each year arouse little anti-Americanism. Singapore is host to a small naval support base that draws little objection. Thailand and Singapore may be models for other U.S. deployments in Asia.

In contrast, the Philippines threw out its U.S. bases more than a decade ago and has since been reluctant to have U.S. forces return even to fight terrorists.

In the Persian Gulf, the U.S. should withdraw after dealing with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The U.S. gets only 4.6 percent of its oil from Iraq and could import more from Latin America or Africa. Europeans should devise ways to protect their oil suppliers around the Persian Gulf.

The same should apply to Saudi Arabia, which is a more difficult issue because it is the second largest supplier of oil to the U.S., after Canada. Even so, Saudi Arabia has a dictatorial, corrupt government and the U.S. should withdraw from that nation since it is the source of explosive anti-Americanism.

Richard Halloran, formerly a correspondent for Business Week, The Washington Post and The New York Times, is a freelance journalist.

Japan seeks parasol in shade of US umbrella

February 26, 2003

By Richard Lloyd Parry and Robert Thomson

IF SHIGERU ISHIBA, Japan’s defence minister, was having a difficult morning yesterday, the signs were subtle.

There was the note slipped into his hand by an underling during the middle of an interview with The Times, and the minister’s sudden disappearance from the room for an urgent telephone call or off-stage conversation.

And then there was the small white tube, a remedy for nicotine cravings commonly used by Japanese salarymen, which Mr Ishiba sucked on intermittently.

But if anyone could be forgiven for needing a fag yesterday morning, it was Japan’s defence minister. It was Mr Ishiba’s first interview with a Western newspaper and it came on one of the most trying days of his career.

Less than 24 hours earlier, in South Hamyong province in the eastern part of North Korea, a 2.3 tonne Silkworm anti-ship missile had been launched into the Sea of Japan.

As the latest in a series of carefully calculated provocations, it sent shivers of alarm through ministries and intelligence agencies all over the world. But no one faced a tougher task than Mr Ishiba.

As Director-General of the Japan Defence Agency — his official title — he lives and breathes the paradoxes and euphemisms that dominate his country's security policy.

With 240,000 members, Japan’s so-called “Self- Defence Forces” (JSDF) represent one of the most formidable armed forces in the world: and yet Article Nine of Japan's Constitution explictly forbids the maintenance of “war potential”.

To maintain this fiction, the JSDF are permitted to operate only within the strictest limits, to the extent that, if a North Korean missiles made it over the Sea of Japan in the direction of, say, Tokyo, they would be forbidden from acting until after it had been fired.

The head of the world’s most powerful non-military military force, a self-defence force incapable of defending itself, is well aware of the contradictions in his position.

In his interview with The Times yesterday he floated an intriguing and far-reaching idea: that, after 57 years under the protective umbrella of the United States, the time has come for Japan to develop an independent means of preventing missile attack.

“Until the other side actually starts something we cannot exercise self-defence,” he said.

“It has been agreed that Japan is the shield and the US is the arrow, but we have to discuss whether this is adequate or not. Henceforth, this will be discussed in parliament.”

Japan calls for fewer US troops on Okinawa

By David Pilling in Tokyo
Published: Feb 03, 2003

Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan's foreign minister, said yesterday that her government would strive to reduce the US military presence on Okinawa, where nearly 60 per cent of American troops stationed in Japan are based.

The government in Tokyo has long come under pressure from Okinawa, Japan's southernmost island, to spread the burden of hosting US troops more evenly throughout Japan. Although Okinawa accounts for just 0.6 per cent of the country's land area, about three-quarters of land occupied by US forces is on the island.

Okinawa, which is heavily dependent on tax transfers from Tokyo, often in the form of public works programmes, has an ambiguous relationship with mainland Japan with which it feels only loosely connected.

Yesterday, Keiichi Inamine, Okinawa's governor, told Mrs Kawaguchi during a visit to the island: "It is important for consistent progress to be made, and the issue must be dealt with not only as an issue of Okinawa, but of Japan as a whole."

Mr Inamine is pressing for a 15-year limit on the use by the US military of a planned new military-civilian airport to be built on reclaimed land at an estimated cost of Y330bn (£1.7bn). The US has so far refused to accept any time limit.

A US government official said Washington was not averse to redeploying troops in the region but there had been no specific approach from the Japanese government about reducing the troop presence in Okinawa.

It would be difficult for Japan to find room for new bases on its crowded mainland, the US official said. Nor had there been any indication from the Philippines that its government would be prepared to re-establish bases there, a proposal floated by a number of Japanese politicians. The US official said that rebuilding a military presence in the Philippines would suit Washington's strategic goals.

US bases in Japan, which are maintained largely at the expense of Japanese taxpayers, have long been controversial, partly because of aircraft noise. In Okinawa, there has also been deep sensitivity over the issue of crime, particularly after the rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US servicemen in 1995.

The Japanese have attacked the US military over such incidents. Suspected US offenders are often disciplined under US military codes rather than being handed over to the Japanese police.

Airfield issue still on Inamine's list

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine, fresh from a re-election victory, has renewed his call for a time limit on U.S. forces' use of a planned local airfield, but the national government only responded by repeating its earlier position Monday.

Following his win at the polls Sunday, Inamine said construction on the new airfield will not begin until the time-limit issue is resolved. Inamine is demanding that U.S. use of the airport be limited to 15 years.

"We will negotiate with the United States," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters at his office, avoiding direct comment on the issue.

The military-civilian airport is to be built off the coast of Nago, in northern Okinawa Island, to accommodate the U.S. Marine Corps heliport being relocated from Futenma Air Station in Ginowan.

The ruling bloc, led by Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party, supported Inamine's election campaign. The governor basically agreed on the relocation plan itself.

International Marriages in Japan: Part Three - Amerasian Children in Okinawa

Social Trends #15: November 8, 2002

International Marriages in Japan: Part Three - Amerasian Children in Okinawa J. Sean Curtin (Professor, Japanese Red Cross University) A full list of articles in this series can be found here. This is the third in a series of articles on various aspects of "international marriage" (a union in which initially one of the spouses is a non-Japanese citizen). In Part One (International Marriages in Japan: Part One - Visa status of non-Japanese spouses in 2002) and Part Two (International Marriages in Japan: Part Two – Impact of 17 October 2002 Supreme Court decision on International Marriages) of this series, the inadequacies of the current legal framework for international marriages were analyzed and in this article some of the social problems relating to international marriage in Okinawa are examined. In Okinawa, a Japanese-American union is the most common type of international marriage. These kinds of marriages have a major impact on the social fabric of the island prefecture. In 1998, Okinawa was slightly above the national average for international marriages with 4.6% of all unions there involving a non-Japanese spouse. What distinguished these matches from the rest of Japan was that the vast majorities were between a Japanese bride and an American groom. Nationally, in about 80% of international marriages, the husband is Japanese and wife is from a neighboring Asian country. When one considers that in 2001 Americans only made up 0.026% of the total population of Japan, the number of Japanese-American marriages in Okinawa is quite astounding. Many of these unions produce offspring. According to Okinawan government estimates, each year about two hundred Amerasian children are born in the prefecture. Okinawa enjoys a strong overall marriage rate, but it also suffers from an equally high divorce rate. For example, in 1999, the Okinawan divorce rate was 2.78 per thousand people. This was well above the national average of 2.00 and was higher than the divorce rates of many European countries. The high divorce rate also partially explains why the prefecture has the highest ratio of mother-headed households in the country. While quite a number of international marriages in Okinawa are very successful, these unions are not immune from the strong regional divorce trend. Unlike the marriage statistics, published divorce figures do not record the nationality of the divorcees, but research shows that separation rates for couples of mixed nationality in the prefecture are extremely high. This has led to one of Okinawa's the most disturbing and normally concealed social problems. Over the past decade, American servicemen have deserted thousands of children and returned to their home country. Local authorities and researchers have compiled figures for the number of abandoned Amerasian children. It is estimated that there are between 3,900 to 4,000 such children in Okinawa. The figure probably underestimates the true scale of the problem. Calculations are mainly based on children abandoned by American fathers in Okinawa and not in the United States. Okinawan women returning with children after a divorce in America are sometimes missed by the statisticians and researchers. Another problem with compiling data is that some women are abandoned by their American partners before giving birth. These mothers are often reluctant to name the father in official documents. The breathtaking tropical beauty of the islands that make up the Okinawa territory are deceptive, concealing a host of deep-seated socio-economic woes. Social scientists believe that the weak and undeveloped regional economy is a major contributing factor behind the high rate of marital breakdown in the prefecture. Okinawa has one of the weakest regional economies in Japan, which creates a unique set of social problems. The prefecture's economic disparity can be clearly seen in its high unemployment rate, which stood at a record 9.4% in September 2002. This was the highest in the country and nearly double the national average of 5.4% for the same month. Okinawa also has the highest rate of unemployment for high school and university graduates. Furthermore, those in employment have the lowest wage levels in the country. Many of Okinawa's complex social problems stem from the overwhelming presence of American forces based on the islands, which dominate and distort the economy of the prefecture.* While Okinawa accounts for just 0.7% of Japan's total land mass, Okinawa provides about 75% of the land used exclusively by the United States military forces based in Japan. There are about 20,000 to 22,000 United States military personnel stationed in Okinawa. To put this figure in perspective, there were 46,244 Americans living in Japan in 2001. Thus, tiny Okinawa accounted for just under half of all American citizens living in the country. This massive concentration of Americans in such a tiny corner of the country has inevitably created some unique social situations, such as the high ratio of Japanese-American marriages. Children from lone-mother households in Okinawa are among the most economically deprived in the country. Besides the obvious disadvantages of poverty, abandoned Amerasian children often have to face various forms of discrimination. One of the major problems confronting these children is school bullying, which many encounter in Japan's conformist education system. Amerasian children born in the United States and unable to fluently speak Japanese usually face even greater difficulties.** Sending such children to international schools is seen as a solution. However, for the vast majority of cash-strapped lone-mothers, this is not a viable option. The fees of such schools are normally beyond their budgetary means. As a result, many underprivileged Amerasian children end up in regular schools where they have high dropout rates. This compounds their economic woes, making the lives of already disadvantage children even worse. Since Okinawa already has the highest rates of lone-mother poverty in the country, it should come as no surprise to learn that the abandoned offspring of U.S. servicemen account for some of the poorest children in the whole of Japan. Nearly all Japanese lone-mother households struggle to make ends meet. However, the poverty levels of Okinawan mothers represent some of the most severe in the country. According to a 1999 study, more than seventy percent of Okinawan lone-mother households had an income of less than 150,000 yen per month, equivalent to an annual income of 1.8 million yen. To put this into perspective, the income of the average Japanese household for 2000 was about 6.17 million yen. The national average annual income of a lone-mother household was just 2.52 million yen, which was not even a third of the average household income. Most Okinawan lone-mothers have incomes that fall well below even this meagre figure, trapping them in severe poverty. Poverty is often defined at the individual level by calculating if the person lives in a household with a size-adjusted disposable income that is less than half the median for the average household in the nation.*** One of the primary reasons for lone-mother poverty in Japan is that fathers do not financially support their children. This is largely due to Japan lacking a system for the collection of child support payments from non-compliant fathers. According to a 1999 Okinawan study, ninety percent of mothers did not receive any child support payments.**** If a Japanese father refuses to pay child support, no real action is taken against him. This is even more of a problem when the father is a U.S. serviceman. This is because once he returns home, the family usually lose all contact with him. Case studies show that some military personnel especially arrange to be transferred before their children are born, making it easier to abandon them. Until the late nineties, such behavior by deadbeat American fathers would lead to no reprisal in the United States. In recent years, a few American military fathers have actually had to face up to their responsibilities. This is thanks to the work of some crusading lawyers in Okinawa. At present, if a serviceman moves back to the United States, it is now possible to take action against him for child maintenance in Okinawa. By contacting child support centres in the United States, court orders demanding DNA-paternity tests can be issued and child support payments deducted from delinquent fathers. Some Amerasian children have also used the internet to try to track down their fathers.***** Even though delinquent American fathers now face the prospect of being prosecuted in family courts, the process takes a lot of time. This is because there is no treaty between Japan and America on the issue. Germany, Sweden and Britain all have individual agreements with America to cooperate in matters of child support involving the servicemen of their respective countries. However, despite talk of inserting a clause in the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. military and Japan, nothing has been done to date. The blame for this lies squarely with Japan, which lacks a system for tracking down non-compliant fathers, conducting DNA-paternity tests and deducing money from the delinquent father's salary. At the moment a bilateral treaty would not be viable, as Japan could not reciprocate for claims made in the United States. Japan needs to establish an effective system for making its own non-compliant fathers pay child support. The current tragedy of thousands of abandoned Amerasian children living in abject poverty is not something that is going to be addressed without some serious political effort from both countries. Proper safeguards are needed to ensure these children do not end up in legal limbo between the two states. A bilateral treaty would certainly help alleviate some of the unfortunate social problems. If the United States military genuinely wants to improve relations with the people of Okinawa, then it needs to ensure its servicemen take responsibility for their offspring. The fact that children born in Okinawa of parents from the world's two richest nations are some of the poorest in Japan is a shameful matter for both countries. References * Handover of Okinawa to Japan was prickly issue Sayuri Daimon, Japan Times, 14 May 2002 Postwar legacy holds key to identity of Okinawans Mayumi Negishi, Japan Times, 15 August 2002 Okinawa election again boils down to two themes Yosuke Naito, Japan Times, 31 October 2002 U.S. wants no reductions in Okinawa Japan Times, 28 April 2002 ** Amerasians of Japan, South Korea to meet in Okinawa Japan Times, 15 August 2002 Amerasian pupil gets diploma Japan Times, 25 March 2000 *** Poorest Japanese Families Getting Poorer Social Trends: Series #4, GLOCOM Platform, 28 August 2002 **** Child Support Payments in 2002 Social Trends: Series #6, GLOCOM Platform, 9 September 2002 ***** Amerasian kids get short shrift in divorce capital of Japan Mayumi Negishi, Japan Times, 20 July 2000 Amerasians get on Net to find GI dads Japan Times, 22 June 2000