EDITORIAL: Too early to start cheering revised guidelines on U.S. accidents

When U.S. military aircraft are involved in an accident in Japan, U.S. authorities take full control of the situation and deny Japanese investigators access to the site.

That, at least, has been the situation to date.

Japan and the United States reached agreement July 25 to change this much-criticized and resented rule. Under revised guidelines concerning the handling of incidents such as crashes and emergency landings, U.S. authorities are prepared to grant Japanese investigators quicker access to accident sites.

But it is too early to start cheering. It remains to be seen if there really will be an improvement in the situation for Japan.

The guidelines establish rules and principles for dealing with U.S. military aircraft accidents outside of U.S. military bases in Japan. They were revised to ensure “expeditious early entry into the inner cordon/restricted area” by Japanese investigators.

Foreign Minister Taro Kono touted the revision as important progress, saying it will ease frustration on the Japanese side. But we cannot take his claim at face value because Japanese investigators will still need U.S. approval to enter the restricted area.

There have been many cases in which bilateral agreements concerning U.S. military aircraft operations, such as restrictions on flights late at night, in the early morning hours and over densely populated areas, have not been honored. There are legitimate concerns that the revision may become a dead letter, depending on how the U.S. military actually implements it.

The guidelines were created in 2005 in response to criticism from the Okinawa prefectural government and infuriated local residents over how the U.S. military handled a 2004 crash of a helicopter on the campus of Okinawa International University in Ginowan, next to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The U.S. military closed off the area around the university and kept Okinawa police and fire department officials from entering the accident scene until six days afterward. By that time, the wreckage had been removed.

The guidelines set rules for dealing with such accidents, stipulating that the aircraft itself should be under the control of the U.S. military while the areas immediate around the accident site should be controlled jointly by U.S. and Japanese authorities. Areas outside the cordoned-off space should be under Japanese control, according to the guidelines.

Since Japanese authorities’ entry into the restricted area needs to be approved by both sides, however, the guidelines have not led to significant improvement for Japan with regard to access, as shown by a spate of U.S. military aircraft accidents in recent years.

When an MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps went down just offshore in the city of Nago in 2016, the U.S. military recovered the wreckage before the Japan Coast Guard got to the site.

When a U.S. military helicopter caught fire in midair and was forced to make an emergency landing on private property in the Takae district of Higashi village in 2017, the U.S. military removed most of the aircraft and soil in surrounding areas by the time Okinawa police were allowed to enter the inner perimeter six days after the crash. Concerns were raised at the time about the possible release of radioactive materials into the environment.

The revised guidelines include the following requirements: In removing potentially hazardous wreckage, U.S. forces are obliged to coordinate with the landowner through the Regional Defense Bureau of the Ministry of Defense. U.S. forces should also continue to provide relevant information on hazardous materials to Japanese authorities as soon as practically possible after an accident.

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki released a statement July 25 welcoming some of the changes, but said the prefectural government would continue to pay close attention to gauge whether Japanese investigators will truly be granted access to an accident site in an expeditious manner.

Tamaki’s reaction is quite understandable given that the fundamental principle of allowing the U.S. military to decide on whether to approve Japanese access has remained unchanged.

At the root of the problem is the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, which gives the U.S. military in Japan all sorts of privileges.

The Japanese government has been reluctant to seek a revision to the agreement. Instead, it deals with specific issues mainly on the basis of improvements in the way it is enforced.

But the fact that the agreement has failed to address concerns about possible threats to the lives and livelihoods of local residents posed by U.S. military aircraft should no longer be overlooked.

Germany and Italy, which are also home to U.S. military bases, apply their domestic laws to U.S. forces stationed in their countries.

It is time for the Japanese government to embark on seeking a revision to the Status of Forces Agreement so that Japanese law will be applied in principle to accidents and crimes involving U.S. military personnel in Japan.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 27