Japan, US to hold joint patrol after Okinawa sexual assaults

The United States has around 54,000 military personnel in Japan, mostly in Okinawa in the south, and their behaviour has long angered locals.

The one-off joint operation through busy areas until the early hours of the next day was proposed by the US side.

"The joint patrol will be held on the night of April 18, and it is perhaps the first such joint event since 1973," an official in Okinawa prefecture told AFP.

Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki may participate, the official added.

The patrol reflects "our continued commitment to partnership, accountability, and mutual respect", said Roger Turner, commanding general of III Marine Expeditionary Force and Okinawa Area Coordinator.

"By working side-by-side with our Japanese counterparts, we are reinforcing shared standards and contributing to the safety and trust that are essential to the strength of the US-Japan alliance," he said in a statement.

Rules about how to treat crimes committed by US military personnel are stipulated in the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said when he took office in October that he wanted to review them.

The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers in Okinawa prompted a major backlash, with calls for a rethink of the 1960 pact allowing the United States to station soldiers in Japan.

In March last year, prosecutors in Okinawa charged a 25-year-old US soldier for alleged assaulting a girl under 16 years old, according to local media and the top government spokesman.

And days after that case emerged in June, another came to light that a 21-year-old US Marine Corps member had been charged with rape.

The joint patrol also comes as Tokyo and Washington continue efforts to strengthen their alliance partly in response to China's military build-up.