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The story
In the case in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, where a US soldier rammed into four pedestrians, the Japanese government is now expected to cover the roughly 8 million yen gap between the finalized damages of about 16.5 million yen and the condolence payment offered by the US side, before the end of the year. The victim, a 62-year-old woman left with lasting aftereffects, revealed this at a press conference with her attorney. On 5ch, discussion centered on the fact that the US soldier responsible has already returned to the US, how the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) is applied, and comparisons with other countries’ status-of-forces agreements.
It has emerged that the roughly 16.5 million yen in damages finalized in a civil suit will likely be paid in full to the victims of a July 2022 incident in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, in which a 33-year-old US soldier stationed at the US Navy’s Yokosuka base rammed into four men and women, then in their 20s to 50s, on the street, causing injuries ranging from minor to serious. The 62-year-old victim and her attorney held a press conference in Yokohama on the 20th to disclose this.
◆ The perpetrator has already gone home… the “SACO condolence payment” is being used
According to the victims’ attorneys, the US military side paid the victims a total of roughly 8.4 million yen in condolence money this month under the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement. How the amount was calculated has not been disclosed. The remaining gap of just over 8 million yen is expected to be paid by the Japanese government before the end of the year.
Source: tokyo-np.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
A Japanese citizen gets hurt by a US soldier, and not only does no one make him take responsibility, the Japanese government just picks up the tab? Give me a break.
Can't be helped, Japan's just the ATM (common sarcastic shorthand for Japan always ending up as the one who pays).
If the positions were reversed, I bet the Japanese soldier would get the death penalty.
Exactly why Japan needs to be able to defend itself and get rid of this unequal treaty.
Germany's allied with the US through NATO too and has US bases, but Japan's the only one stuck with a lopsided treaty like this.
The Self-Defense Forces already handle Japan's own defense in the air, at sea, and on land. Are you half asleep?
Exactly. People back in his home country should know he's a dangerous guy too.
What peace? US soldiers are the ones wrecking public safety in Japan.
If it's not realistic to make the perpetrator himself pay, then since the victim is Japanese, it's better to have some kind of compensation in place.
The victim probably has ongoing hospital visits and other costs too, so it's better to get compensation sorted quickly.
Realistically, the Japanese government is the only one with the ability to pay.
I get why people think it's messed up, but there have also been cases of American soldiers dying in the line of duty on missions tied to defending Japan.
Is Japan actually billed for that, case by case?
Things don't run on nice words alone.
I get the feeling, but it's fine as long as it's what the victim wants.
>American soldiers dying in the line of duty on missions tied to defending Japan
What are you talking about?
>there have been cases of American soldiers dying in the line of duty on missions tied to defending Japan
That's just an accident lol. There's no combat happening at all lol.
Don't forget the US built those bases for its own convenience too.
And on top of that, the US is pressuring Japan to raise its defense spending? And what does Japan end up buying — the 'widow-maker' Osprey (a grim nickname for the V-22 over its crash history) and useless Tomahawks. Wasn't there even a case where the delivery date wasn't even set?
Don't call it 'just an accident.' They had families too, same as you.
But it was just an accident. Are you saying that counts as defending Japan lol?
There was an American lawyer running a campaign to make US soldiers who got Japanese women pregnant and then fled back home pay child support.
Background and Key Points
The mechanism at the center of this story predates this specific case by three decades. After the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by US servicemen in Okinawa provoked mass protests, the Japan-US Special Action Committee (SACO) established a standing arrangement: if a Japanese civil court awards damages against a US military member and that person cannot or will not pay the full amount, Tokyo makes up the shortfall through an ex gratia “condolence payment,” while Washington separately pays its own smaller condolence sum under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) itself. That is exactly the two-tier structure here — roughly ¥8.4 million from the US side under SOFA, with the Japanese government expected to cover the remaining ¥8 million of the ¥16.5 million judgment. It is a routine, decades-old backstop, not an improvised bailout.
The thread’s actual fault line isn’t “pro-US vs. anti-US” in general — it’s a narrower argument over one poster’s claim (#138) that American service members have died “in the line of duty defending Japan,” offered as a reason Japan owes the alliance some slack. Other posters (#141, #147, #165) push back hard, pointing out that no US personnel have died in combat defending Japan since the base structure exists purely for deterrence and training, with fatalities being accidents, not casualties of war. That rebuttal, not the general SOFA grievance, is where the disagreement actually sharpens.
What the thread never raises is that this payment is civil, not criminal — nothing here indicates the soldier avoided prosecution, only that the compensation gap is being filled. Readers unfamiliar with SOFA history may conflate this routine gap-filling with jurisdictional impunity, which is a separate and more contentious issue this case doesn’t actually involve.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “Zushi ‘Rammed by a US Soldier’ Case: Japanese Government to Cover Remaining Damages as Victim Still Suffers Lasting Effects.”
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