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US Forces in Japan banned from consuming alcohol

Jredbaron96

Jredbaron96

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https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...for-u-s-forces-in-japan-after-fatal-car-crash

After a Japanese man was killed early Sunday in a car crash involving a U.S. service member, U.S. forces in Japan are prohibited indefinitely from purchasing or drinking alcohol.


Police in Okinawa say the service member "had an alcohol level that was three times the legal limit" at the time of the collision, according to Reuters. The military has stated that "alcohol may have been a factor" in the crash.
On the same day as the crash, U.S. Forces, Japan said that service members on the island of Okinawa are restricted to the base and their homes.


"Until further notice, alcohol consumption is prohibited. This includes in residences and public locations such as bars and clubs, and hotels," the military said in a statement. "Additionally, U.S. service members on mainland Japan are prohibited from purchasing or consuming alcohol, on or off base."
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KevinKohler said:
Ouch.
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Yep. And talk about bad timing. Not just thanksgiving but we are about to have our annual ball.
Nothing like thousands of people getting pink for the actions of one retard.
 
Collective punishment of our Japan forces yet again.

A very bad idea.
 
washunut said:
Can someone remind me why we still have troops in Japan 70 years after the war.

What happened to America First and bringing our kids home.
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Asia is a potential battleground, and Japan is like Israel of the a South China Sea.
 
washunut said:
Can someone remind me why we still have troops in Japan 70 years after the war.
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220px-Kim_Jong-Un_Photorealistic-Sketch.jpg
 
braindrain said:
Yep. And talk about bad timing. Not just thanksgiving but we are about to have our annual ball.
Nothing like thousands of people getting pink for the actions of one retard.
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Seems like they should still be able to drink on base...
 
MaggieD said:
Good. Don’t blame the Japanese one bit. Glad the U.S. responded quickly. And hope the drunk faces the full force of Japanese law. If it is true that the driver was three times the legal limit, he was effectively driving along blindfolded or worse.
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That’s the Japan legal limit which is .03, the US limit is .08
 
This is temporary. The restriction will be lifted.
 
apdst said:
This is temporary. The restriction will be lifted.
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It is also not the first time that this is done. I know at least once before alcohol was banned and everyone confined to base. Makes the locals feel we are taking the incident seriously. After awhile, the locals want the business from those stationed there.
 
MaggieD said:
Good. Don’t blame the Japanese one bit. Glad the U.S. responded quickly. And hope the drunk faces the full force of Japanese law. If it is true that the driver was three times the legal limit, he was effectively driving along blindfolded or worse.
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My problem is in Japan there is propaganda out there making US service members look like uncultured criminals because they are salty about having US bases there (mostly young people). They commit less crimes on average than the Japanese do but make a massive deal about anything a US service member does.
 
digsbe said:
My problem is in Japan there is propaganda out there making US service members look like uncultured criminals because they are salty about having US bases there (mostly young people). They commit less crimes on average than the Japanese do but make a massive deal about anything a US service member does.
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I can understand that. But I don’t think it applies in this particular case. A drunk that kills someone... kinda hard NOT to make a big deal out of that.
 
digsbe said:
My problem is in Japan there is propaganda out there making US service members look like uncultured criminals because they are salty about having US bases there (mostly young people). They commit less crimes on average than the Japanese do but make a massive deal about anything a US service member does.
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It is a massive deal if alcohol is a factor that results in the death of another road user.

By the way, Japan actually introduced tougher new drink driving laws overall back in September as a result of public outcry following the deaths of three young children in August. They drowned after a Japanese municipal worker (who had been drinking), rear ended their parents vehicle and sent them crashing into a bay. It's not making a "massive deal" about anything a US Service member does. They are now taking a much tougher stance on drink drivers generally.
 
Crovax said:
That’s the Japan legal limit which is .03, the US limit is .08
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And the beer is stronger. 5% as opposed to 3-4% in the US. We used to take the "boots" out and tell them if they could kill a 6-pack of Orion (an Okinawan brand, pronounced "Or-e-on") in an hour and walk straight, we would pay for the beer. We never lost a bet.

Of course, we also walked to and from Henoko. It was only a mile away, and none of us had cars. Even back in the 1980's there were free busses to take you from base to base, so there was no excuse to drink and drive even if you had a car.

washunut said:
Can someone remind me why we still have troops in Japan 70 years after the war.

What happened to America First and bringing our kids home.
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Because they want us there.

Back at the end of WWII, the government was determined to never again have the kind of military that would allow them to act expansionist and attack another nation ever again. That is why it is known as the "Self-Defense Force".

And it is very much a defensive organization. They have very little in the way of offensive capability, and rely upon the US for having a more forceful presence. And unless things have changed since I was last there, Okinawa would much rather have US forces there on the bases than Japanese forces. At least as late as 1990, the Japan Air Self Defense Force stationed at the Naha Air Base was sequestered and were not allowed to leave their base. If they wanted to take liberty they went to one of the American bases (like Kadena for the large base features, or Schwab for diving).

That is why the Japanese military presence is so small on Okinawa. At least the older generation have a deep hatred for the Japanese military, Things may have changed in the last 25 years, but still to this day there is only a single "Japanese military" base on the island, and they only take a small part of Naha Airport.

I always found it fascinating when I was there that we had free run of the island, but Japanese forces were confined to base. And in talking with survivors of the battle I could see why. It is believed that more civilians were purposefully killed by Japanese soldiers than died in battle. In 1988 I was lucky enough to be part of a guided tour by Tomiko Higa. Her telling about the battle was horrifying.

And it is good for the US, because it gives our forces a forward staging area in a friendly country. If not for that any future action in say Korea would have to go all the way from Guam or Alaska.

And this is not free either. Japan pays the US around $4.5 billion every year, in addition to the land the bases are on.
 
Oozlefinch said:
And the beer is stronger. 5% as opposed to 3-4% in the US. We used to take the "boots" out and tell them if they could kill a 6-pack of Orion (an Okinawan brand, pronounced "Or-e-on") in an hour and walk straight, we would pay for the beer. We never lost a bet.

Of course, we also walked to and from Henoko. It was only a mile away, and none of us had cars. Even back in the 1980's there were free busses to take you from base to base, so there was no excuse to drink and drive even if you had a car.
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There are plenty of beers in the US that are 5%, like Budweiser. Just looked up Orion its 4.7%
 
Crovax said:
There are plenty of beers in the US that are 5%, like Budweiser. Just looked up Orion its 4.7%
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Not sure where you got that info, unless that is an export version. If so I would love to know where, I have been trying to find Orion in the US for over 25 years (I found it only one time, the place closed a few months later in 1993).

https://www.beermenus.com/beers/5908-orion-lager
https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/orion-premium-draft-beer/9170/
https://untappd.com/b/orion-breweries-ltd-orion-draft-beer/174508

And most who deploy to Okinawa were only allowed to drink in the E-clubs stateside, since most were 19-20. That means the 3.2% stuff they sold in the clubs (and even some states still only allow 3.2% beer). Another experience I enjoyed seeing was guys drinking pitchers of beer at the Beer Garden at Lejeune, then trying to repeat that overseas where the beer was double content from what they were used to.

And as an FYI, Bud (and others) have been sued many times over their watering down of their beers. Even their "5%" is more often than not 4.2% or so.
 
washunut said:
Can someone remind me why we still have troops in Japan 70 years after the war.

What happened to America First and bringing our kids home.
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America First went down the toilet when it turned out that lots of America Firsters were in actuality fans of the Putsch Pals over in Berlin and didn't want the US to help squash Herr Hitler.

Japan is a US ally. Should we abandon our friends?
 
MaggieD said:
Good. Don’t blame the Japanese one bit. Glad the U.S. responded quickly. And hope the drunk faces the full force of Japanese law. If it is true that the driver was three times the legal limit, he was effectively driving along blindfolded or worse.
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Just one thing that add. The legal limit in Japan is .03. So a big difference between 3 times the limit n America and here in japan.
 
MaggieD said:
Seems like they should still be able to drink on base...
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Nope that is not allowed. All the on base stores are not allowed to sell alcohol and all SOFA service members are banned from drinking alcohol
 
braindrain said:
Just one thing that add. The legal limit in Japan is .03. So a big difference between 3 times the limit n America and here in japan.
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HERE, if it was Christmas Eve, someone might even get a break for .09. Now that I think about it, with that kind of limit, why would soldiers drink at ALL off base? .03 might be one beer... Did the calculation. No one doesn’t do it.

6 beers over 2 hours, 175# results in about .09.

If you’re interested, here’s the link.

BAC Calculator - Calculate Blood Alcohol Concentration Level | DrivingLaws.org
 
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Oozlefinch said:
Not sure where you got that info, unless that is an export version. If so I would love to know where, I have been trying to find Orion in the US for over 25 years (I found it only one time, the place closed a few months later in 1993).

https://www.beermenus.com/beers/5908-orion-lager
https://www.ratebeer.com/beer/orion-premium-draft-beer/9170/
https://untappd.com/b/orion-breweries-ltd-orion-draft-beer/174508

And most who deploy to Okinawa were only allowed to drink in the E-clubs stateside, since most were 19-20. That means the 3.2% stuff they sold in the clubs (and even some states still only allow 3.2% beer). Another experience I enjoyed seeing was guys drinking pitchers of beer at the Beer Garden at Lejeune, then trying to repeat that overseas where the beer was double content from what they were used to.

And as an FYI, Bud (and others) have been sued many times over their watering down of their beers. Even their "5%" is more often than not 4.2% or so.
Click to expand...

Orion Premium Draft Beer | Orion Beer Co., Ltd. | BeerAdvocate

Orion Premium Draft - Orion Breweries, Ltd. - Untappd

http://www.taphunter.com/beer/orion-lager/34988576

http://www.cnsimportsca.com/products/orion-premium-draft-beer-633ml

There must be 2 kinds. Since it’s about half and half 5 vs 4.7

As for Budweiser it has been sued but it won every time because it was within the legal variance. The legal variance is 0.3% so at weakest it’s a 4.7 beer
 
Redress said:
It is also not the first time that this is done. I know at least once before alcohol was banned and everyone confined to base. Makes the locals feel we are taking the incident seriously. After awhile, the locals want the business from those stationed there.
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Yeah it has happened quite a few times. This is the second in just the last two years.
 
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