Japan Asks U.S. Military To Report On AWOL Service Members

The U.S. sailor who killed Japanese taxi driver in Yokosuka was absent without leave when the crime took place last month, so Japanese authorities are now asking the U.S. military to provide them with information on other service members who go AWOL:

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence that Tokyo “would like to create a system under which (U.S.) deserters are immediately reported to us.”

Komura said discussions have already begun within the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee and that he expected an agreement on the matter soon.

Currently, the U.S. military is under no obligation to inform Japanese authorities about U.S. personnel who go on unauthorized absence or desert their positions in Japan.

Japanese police learned about the absence of U.S. Navy sailor Olatunbosun Ugbogu only after taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi, 61, was stabbed to death March 19 in a residential area near Yokosuka Naval Base.

Ugbogu went missing from his ship on March 8. U.S. authorities handed him over to Japanese police Thursday in connection with Takahashi’s slaying.