Curfew

Military members currently have a curfew in Japan. Some sailors and Marines and airmen have been idiots for the last few months, and the best thing the powers that be can come up with is to initiate a curfew. At first, it was just a curfew--be home, on base, or in a hotel room from 11 PM to 5 am. Then people started abusing that policy and got hotel rooms off base, drank themselves silly, and did something ridiculous. So now the curfew is no alcohol after 10, no hotels unless on government travel or approved by your CO, and be home or on base by 11. Guys traveling to Japan on temporary duty have an even harder time of it--they can't leave the base unless their hotel is off base. A majority of the incidents have been on Okinawa, so the Okinawa leaders have prohibited all off-base alcohol--even people WALKING off base will have to submit to a breathalyzer to ensure they are alcohol-free outside the gates.

For a lot of people, the curfew is a hardship, or at least a perceived hardship. For us it is mostly a non-issue. We have to get a special chit from the CO for our trip to Kyoto in a couple weeks--even though Jip will be on leave, he has to have special permission to stay in the Best Western in downtown Kyoto. But, other than that, we're okay with being in by 11. In fact, when was the last time we were out past 11? It was definitely pre-RJ. I think it may have been for a Harry Potter movie.

The ones I feel the most sorry for are the Japanese business owners who thrive on military-types' dollars (yen). They are the real losers. Because about 10 people have misbehaved, albeit in pretty big ways, from alleged rape to a DUI resulting in injuries, in the last few months, businesses are losing thousands of dollars from the rule-abiding rest of us. Even though the curfew only applies (is enforced) for military members, all SOFA personnel are being asked to be mindful of the curfew and voluntarily participate. When there was last a US military curfew in Japan, many businesses went out of business. Some Japanese are putting pressure on the US to return to normal off-base privileges while leadership is trying to figure out how to get people to behave better and appease the Japanese who are using the incidents to fuel the fire and get the US out of Japan, or at least off of Okinawa. We've been assured that a "new normal" is coming--but no one knows what that means yet.

These are some interesting times here for strangers in a strange land.