Diplomatic Bluebook 2017, Chapter 3: Japan-U.S. relations

… <p>In response to the suspected murder by a civilian component of the U.S. Forces in Japan in April, both the Japanese and U.S. Governments engaged in discussions to establish effective measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. In July, they issued the “United States-Japan Joint Statement on Reviewing Implementation Practices of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) Related to U.S. Personnel with SOFA Status, Including the Civilian Component.” In this joint statement, the two governments declared their commitment to take steps to finalize and announce the respective detailed measures in areas including the clarification of the scope of the civilian component.</p> <p>Thereafter, based on this joint statement, the two governments continued to engage in intensive consultations. In December, they reached a substantive agreement on the Agreement on cooperation with regard to implementation practices relating to the civilian component of the U.S. Forces in Japan. This supplementary agreement was signed and entered into force in January 2017. It supplements and clarifies the scope of the civilian component set forth in SOFA through the form of an international commitment, and this was the second time that a supplementary agreement to the SOFA had been drawn up, following from the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Stewardship concluded in 2015. Through the steady implementation of this supplementary agreement, the Japanese government expects that Japan-U.S. cooperation is further promoted, and recurrence of incidents and accidents by civilian components is prevented through strengthening the management over the civilian component of U.S. Forces in Japan.</p> …