Hatoyama eyes tougher U.S. SOFA

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.

To convince the U.S to agree to the change, the administration will emphasize that it is working out legislation to ensure full recordings when suspects are questioned, the sources said.

"The United States views that the Japanese way of questioning (suspects) disregards human rights, so there is a need for Japan to make efforts to ensure (transparent) questioning through full audio and visual recordings, and the Hatoyama government is working in that direction," one of the sources said.

The SOFA used to stipulate that the U.S would hand over military personnel only if they are indicted, unless Japanese authorities arrest the person red-handed. But after a 1995 case in which a 12-year-old girl was gang-raped by two marines and a navy corpsman in Okinawa, the U.S. agreed to "consider" handing over suspects before indictment.

In 2004, Tokyo and Washington reaffirmed that suspects would be handed over before indictment when Japan had a grave interest in the case, but this is only a verbal agreement.

According to the sources, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama intends to convey the proposal to President Barack Obama when he comes to Tokyo next month.

But Hatoyama may put off raising the issue amid strained ties between the two countries on the unresolved question of where to relocate the U.S. Futenma military airfield in Okinawa Prefecture.

Other possible proposals to revise the SOFA include calling for Japan to have jurisdiction over crimes committed by U.S. personnel on duty outside U.S. bases, the sources said.

The government also plans to include a clause on dealing with environmental pollution and other ecological damage at U.S. bases in Japan, they said.

This would be aimed at allowing Japanese authorities, such as local governments, to carry out on-site inspections and obliging the U.S. to undo the damage. Such a clause would cover U.S exercises and other training operations.