January 26 | 4 p.m. | Online - Zoom Webinar 
Speaker: Hanayo Oya, Journalist/Documentary Filmmaker
Hanayo Oya, a journalist and former visiting scholar at CJS, will discuss her latest investigative story on the issue of crimes perpetrated by U.S. military personnel against local people in Japan. Especially controversial has been the criminal jurisdiction over the U.S. military personnel, because of the Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs), which are multilateral or bilateral agreements that protect U.S. military personnel from being subject to criminal justice systems in host countries. As a result, once jurisdiction is handed over to the U.S. side, there is no more legal recourse - and effectively no transparency - for the local communities affected by the crimes. Japanese laws don’t apply to the perpetrators, and Japanese journalists often treat these crimes as an extraterritorial matter. This state of affairs leaves crucial questions unanswered: How exactly were such agreements made between Japan and the U.S.? And what was the purpose of the agreements? The presenter will examine the historical background of the agreements as well as their influences to local communities in Japan.