Japanese police failed to disclose 5 cases of sex crimes involving US troops

Police said on Thursday they had not disclosed five cases of alleged sexual assault involving U.S. military personnel in three prefectures that had been forwarded to prosecutors since 2021, after the revelation of unreported cases in Okinawa sparked a public outcry last month.

The three prefectures of Aomori, Kanagawa and Yamaguchi are US military bases. However, the majority of the bases used exclusively by US forces in Japan are in Okinawa, which was under US administration until 1972.

Kanagawa Prefectural Police, near Tokyo, said they had made no announcement in 2022 about a U.S. military personnel who had been referred to prosecutors on suspicion of sexually assaulting and injuring a woman.

They also arrested a civilian employee of the US armed forces earlier this year for allegedly committing an indecent act without his consent.

No charges were filed against either suspect. Police said they decided not to make the cases public at the time to prevent the media from causing emotional pain to the victims.

These revelations came after police reviewed internal records for just three years starting in 2021.

In Aomori, two people with ties to the U.S. military were transferred to prosecutors in 2021 and 2022 on charges of rape and sexual assault, respectively.

Police in the northeastern prefecture said they do not normally publicly disclose the reasons for keeping cases secret.

In Yamaguchi, western Japan, a person with ties to the US military was handed over to prosecutors in 2022 on suspicion of sexual abuse.

Local police said they had decided not to make the case public for “reasons of public interest and data protection.”

In Okinawa, a U.S. Air Force soldier was charged in March for allegedly kidnapping and sexually abusing a minor in December, and a U.S. Marine was arrested in May on suspicion of attempted rape with bodily harm.

The two cases were kept secret by U.S. and Japanese authorities until they were exposed by the media late last month, further fueling long-standing sentiment against the base in the southern island prefecture.

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