Washington has notified Tokyo of a total of 35 disciplinary actions taken against U.S. military personnel since an accord reached in October 2013 to revise the bilateral status-of-forces agreement on U.S. military operations in Japan, U.S. and Japanese diplomatic sources said Monday.
Many of the punishments during January to September were related to relatively minor incidents such as traffic accidents, the sources said. The two governments have agreed to inform victims of crimes committed by U.S. military personnel in Japan of court proceedings, including any punishments imposed.
The move is apparently aimed at easing opposition in Okinawa, which has criticized U.S. disclosure of punishments as insufficient, to a plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within the prefecture.