Japan and the United States agreed Friday to allow U.S. officials to be present during police questioning of U.S. service members suspected of committing heinous crimes in Japan, the Foreign Ministry said.
Under the agreement, a U.S. command representative will be permitted to sit in on interrogations "to enable U.S. military authorities to swiftly carry out their investigation."
Yasumasa Nagamine, deputy director general of the ministry's North American Affairs Bureau, and Brig. Gen. Timothy Larsen, deputy commander of U.S. Forces in Japan, reached the agreement during a meeting of the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee in Tokyo.