A liaison council comprising the governors of 15 Japanese prefectures hosting U.S. military bases and related facilities submitted a petition to the central government on Thursday, calling for a revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
The petition said that safety issues arising from U.S. military flights, as well as the leakage of hazardous substances into areas surrounding U.S. military bases, could significantly impact residents’ lives, stressing the need to restrict such activities under Japanese domestic laws.
It also pointed out that in recent years, a number of problems had emerged over the use of Japanese civilian airports and ports by U.S. forces, and that there had also been cases of U.S. military personnel carrying firearms outside bases, raising concern among residents. The governors’ council called on the U.S. forces in Japan to respect Japanese laws and regulations.
Yuji Kuroiwa, governor of Kanagawa Prefecture and head of the liaison council, told reporters the same day that without a fundamental revision of SOFA, the various problems involving U.S. forces in Japan could not be resolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A liaison council comprising the governors of 15 Japanese prefectures hosting U.S. military bases and related facilities submitted a petition to the central government on Thursday, calling for a revision of the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).The petition said that safety issues arising from U.S. military flights, as well as the leakage of hazardous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n