The US military on Monday banned “alcohol consumption” for its troops stationed in Japan on Monday, in response to a deadly road accident in the Okinawa archipelago caused by a drunken American soldier on Sunday.
“Until further notice, alcohol consumption is banned” for all US servicemen in the country, both in their bases and in public places such as bars, clubs, and hotels, according to a statement from US forces in Japan.
On Sunday afternoon, a 61-year-old Japanese man died in Okinawa in a road accident caused by a Marine Corps officer driving a drunken truck.
An alcohol test revealed that her alcohol level was three times the limit for driving, according to Japanese police.
“When our serving members do not live up to the high expectations we have of them, it damages the links between the bases and the local communities and makes our mission more difficult to accomplish,” he said. the US military in its release.
Some 47,000 American soldiers are based in Japan, more than half of them in the small Okinawa archipelago, where their presence is often poorly lived by the inhabitants.
The news items involving US military in Okinawa, highly publicized in Japan, thus throw oil on the fire.
Currently, a former US Navy in Okinawa is on trial for the rape and murder of a 20-year-old Japanese woman last year. The verdict of this highly publicized trial is expected on December 1st.