Japan Press Weekly

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2025 June 4 - 10 [US FORCES]

Armed US soldiers outside US Yokosuka AB monitor antiwar demonstrators

Japanese Communist Party member of the Yokosuka City Assembly Omura Yoko, at an assembly meeting on May 30, pressed the city mayor to request the U.S. military to ensure that citizens’ peaceful demonstrations will never again be monitored by armed U.S. soldiers, calling such surveillance an intimidating veiled “threat” to citizens.

The demonstrators are criticizing the U.S. Navy for having its military personnel armed with rifles to monitor antiwar demonstrations on the public sidewalk outside the gate of the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base (Kanagawa Pref.).

Mayor Kamiji Katsuaki, however, refused Omura’s suggestion, citing the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

JCP Omura in response said, “Your unwillingness to protest or even request the U.S. military to not do this is the same as that of the LDP government, which is at the mercy of the United States.”

The previous day, two civic organizations submitted a written request to the base commander, demanding an apology and an assurance that the U.S. Navy will not continue to engage in intimidating behavior.

According to their written request, on March 30 and April 27 during the monthly demonstration held by a group of local residents working to establish a nuclear-free Yokosuka, and on May 10 during the “Mother’s Day Parade” held by another group opposing the homeporting of a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka, U.S. servicemen wearing bulletproof vests and armed with rifles stood on the sidewalk outside the base and “intimidated” the demonstrators.