An Australian woman who was raped by a U.S. military serviceman more than a decade ago renewed on Thursday her request to Japan's government to amend the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which critics claim allows both countries to evade responsibility for misconduct linked to U.S. bases.
"(Tomorrow) will mark 16 years that I have been trying to change one part of Article 16 of the SOFA ... to change just one word," said Catherine Jane Fisher, a human rights activist and long-term resident of Japan, during a news conference in Tokyo.
Fisher said she will meet with Foreign Ministry officials on Friday to ask them to work toward the revision.