The Hatoyama administration is considering trying to get the United States to agree to hand over to Japan military personnel suspected of committing a crime but prior to indictment whenever Tokyo wants, government sources said Sunday.
The proposed revision in the Status of Forces Agreement, which governs operations and legal arrangements of the U.S. military in Japan, goes a step further than current special arrangements in which servicemen can be handed over to Japan before a formal indictment only in cases of murder and other extremely serious crimes.
The United State has rebuffed similar requests of this kind to beef up the SOFA, citing Japan's lack of full video and audio recordings of interrogations.