Japan arrests U.S. serviceman for sexual assault

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) - Police in northern Japan arrested a U.S. serviceman on Friday for sexually assaulting a young woman, in the latest in a string of such cases involving American military that have sparked anger among Japanese.

The 22-year-old man, stationed at Misawa Air Base in Aomori prefecture, at the northern tip of Japan's main island, is alleged to have groped the woman on the street early Friday morning, a police spokesman said.

Kyodo news agency said the victim was 19 and was walking home from a friend's house alone when attacked.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUST35073020080502

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bring the boys back home

[MADem]

1. AGAIN? This is getting absurd. Do we need to send all female units over there, or what? NT

[saigon68]

15. Playing Hide the Kielbasa again

[bemildred]

2. I wonder if the Japanese are trying to prod us into finally going home. nt

[DrDan]

4. from what I read - from unhappycamper's posts - they all seem to be legitmate

[bemildred]

5. I'm not saying they are not legitimate.

I'm asking whether they are being used for a political purpose. Like what was done here with Rev. Wright, for example.

[DrDan]

7. well - I can't say I would blame them

One case a month back or so - guy robs and kills a cab driver then heads back to the safety of the base. And it was quite a while (days) before we would even consider turning him over to the local authorities. We can't protect these guys when they commit crimes against the community. They need to face the local music.

[bemildred]

8. Yep. nt

[MADem]

16. They are--it's usually young horny servicemen behaving badly.

It's fucking absurd. This has been happening alot lately, too. Is the problem Low Quality Recruits, because they're usually young first termers who pull this shit, or lousy overseas screening? Or both?

[DrDan]

3. another one?

time to get some answers from the commanders. What are they doing to prevent this?

[Mojorabbit]

6. I lived there in the 70s

I don't remember hearing of things like this in those days. It seems like there is at least one a week of these stories.

[AlphaCentauri]

11. Back then they may had more access to prostitution houses

but still looks like there is plenty of it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Japan
"The sex industry in Japan uses a variety of names. Soaplands are bath houses where customers are soaped up and serviced by staff. Fashion health shops and pink salons are notionally massage or esthetic treatment parlors, and image clubs are themed versions of the same (see Cosplay). Call girls operate via delivery health services. Freelancers can get in contact with potential customers via telekura (telephone clubs), and the actual act of prostitution is legally called enjo kōsai or "compensated dating" in order to avoid legal trouble.

Over 150,000 non-Japanese women are in prostitution in Japan, mostly Chinese, Thai, Filipino and Eastern European women. Japanese men constitute the largest number of Asian sex tourists.<2> One "sex zone" in Tokyo, only 0.34 km2, has 3,500 sex "facilities"; strip theaters, peep shows, "soaplands," "lovers' banks," porno shops, sex telephone clubs, karaoke bars, clubs, etc."

[MADem]

17. They've added "visiting houses of prostitution" as a UCMJ offense, now.

It really pissed off the servicemen stationed in Germany.

[enlightenment]

12. I lived there in the late 60s and early 70s as a young teen

and it was happening then. The difference, I think, was the level of tolerance - the military wasn't having any of it and the threat of turning an offender over to the Japanese for judicial punishment was often sufficient to make a serviceman think twice. Seems to me that the punishment for rape was life (or at least a long, long time) on a diet of fishheads and rice - at least that was the threat.

I remember one incident that took place on Japanese soil, but involved a US serviceman and US civilians. There was a hotel right off Yokota AFB where the Braniff flight crews stayed - that airline served as the passenger charter for the US military. One night, a serviceman assaulted a flight attendant and then held her hostage in her room. Cops from the base, local cops - seemed like half the law enforcement in the area congregated outside the little hotel. Eventually, he came out, holding her in front of him, with a big kitchen knife at her throat. These days somebody would have just shot him, but they talked him down (he was clearly unbalanced from either stress or drugs or both). He released the woman and they took him into custody. Because the hotel was on Japanese soil, he was turned over to the Japanese - I believe they convicted him and threw him in prison. That was in 71 or 72.

Apocryphal story, I know - and after so many years I'm sure I got the details more wrong than right . . . but the point is that it was happening.

[raystorm7]

9. We need to get out of Japan like years ago. This is out of hand.

[L0oniX]

10. Again? Jeeze o pete ...it's become a habit with our military. If it ain't the military then it's..

KBR. :mad:

[Kali]

13. I wonder if it has anything to do with lower recritment standards?

Another boosh/Iraq legacy?

[bean fidhleir]

14. I seem to remember, living in Germany 40-45 years ago, that there were always

stories about women being assaulted by GIs in Japan and especially Okinawa. My speculation was that they were reacting in some lizard-brained way to the smaller, lighter-boned Japanese women as prey. There was hardly ever an assault case in Germany, possibly because German women weren't raised to give off "submission vibes" and in fact might very well have cleaned a drunken attacker's plow for him.