Japan Press Weekly

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2008 November 5 - 11 [US FORCES]

Japan Peace Committee requests U.S. base hosting prefecture governors to urge national government to make public secret Japan-U.S. deals

The Japan Peace Committee requested that the group of governors of the 14 prefectures hosting U.S. military bases in Japan press the government to make public the secret Japan-U.S. agreement on Japan’s renunciation of the primary jurisdiction over crimes committed by U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan.

In a meeting with officials of the governors’ group secretariat in Yokohama on November 10, executive member of the JPC Board of Directors Sato Mitsuo hheld a copy of the U.S. document in question and said, “I would like remind you that the Japanese government, which has the obligation to protect the Japanese people’s human rights, gave up Japan’s national sovereignty.”

The U.S. document was recently obtained by Niihara Shoji, an analyst of international affairs, at the U.S. National Archives.

The official of the governors’ group secretariat said, “Every time such incidents occurred, we called on the government to take preventive measures as well as investigate the cause of incidents only to find that it is very difficult to persuade the government to do so. We will continue to put pressure on the government.”

He also promised to widely distribute the document that contains the secret agreement between the Japanese and U.S. governments.