SNA (Tokyo) — Shingetsu News Agency has reported for two years on how the Japanese government and media have gone out of their way to blame foreigners for the domestic spread of Covid. Each time we’ve gone out of our way to point out that Covid was usually brought in by Japanese citizens disobeying lenient quarantines.

The government’s exclusionary border policies, treating people without Japanese passports as somehow more contagious, is routinely supported neither by logic nor science.

The latest mutation of this narrative has been the blame targeted at US military bases in Japan for community spread.

For example, Japan Times reported on January 8, stitching together wire reports from Jiji Press and Kyodo News, that “US military personnel are believed to have triggered a coronavirus resurgence in [Okinawa, Yamaguchi, and Hiroshima]. Many people in the three prefectures live in close proximity to American bases. Infection prevention measures taken by the US forces, which some have criticized as being too lax, are thought to be behind that explosion of cases.”

The report continued, “It was revealed in December that US forces had been lax in their border measures against the virus… It was found that the US side was not conducting pre-departure and post-arrival testing, as required by Japan, and that it had shortened the period of restrictions on arriving personnel’s movement from fourteen days to ten. It also allowed people in the restriction period to move freely within US bases.”

Not to be outdone, Kyodo News reported that cases were surging in Tokyo while falling in Okinawa and Hiroshima, but included a photo of a Naha advertisement for PCR tests that showed a Caucasian man sneezing–a nice bit of embedded racism that wound up being reprinted by Japan Times as well.

Politicians soon jumped on the bandwagon. Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki has explicitly claimed, “US military bases are one of the major causes of the spread of infections.” So have the governors of Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures, the latter claiming that US military personnel “were not tested before departure from the United States.”

Even Prime Minister Fumio Kishida piled on, boosting his popularity by quickly shutting Japan’s borders to all foreigners again when Omicron appeared, then demanding American bases institute tougher masking policies and limitations on community contact.

Granted, the latter measure is prudent. But again, is the blame game grounded in facts and science? Or are these reactions to people trying to find another foreign scapegoat for the latest Covid spike?

It may feel odd for a progressive media outlet column to seemingly come to the defense of US Forces Japan (USFJ), a Pacific War legacy occupation force that has, to put it mildly, an extremely mixed record in Japan.

Over the decades there have been countless cases of untoward and illegal behavior by US soldiers protected by a shield of extraterritoriality.

For Covid, this has meant a separate national entry, testing, and quarantine regime that, if Japanese media reports are true, would duly raise concerns about national sovereignty and the porous nature of Japan’s borders.

But our first obligation is to the truth. And here is some: Official US policy under a presidential order is that all federal employees (including the military) must be tested and vaccinated, with 92% as of early December reportedly receiving at least one dose.

Anecdotal evidence I have received also confirms that US military personnel are being denied entry to overseas bases if testing positive for Covid.

Further, USFJ official press releases about Covid measures dated January 5, 9, and 21 have mentioned “stringent mitigation measures” that include “mandating mask wear in any public area and on-base facility while in restriction of movement until in receipt of a negative Covid test; requiring a Covid test upon arrival to Japan via Mil-Air and Patriot Express; and reinforcing that all personnel continue to be required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status while off base.”

It continued, “US Forces Japan now requires no less than three negative Covid tests upon traveling to Japan including testing prior to departure for Japan, immediately upon arrival, and again while in restriction of movement status on installation.”

They claim that 98% of all USFJ active duty personnel are vaccinated.

For confirmation, I contacted USFJ on January 13 and again on January 15 at their main email address, identifying myself as a columnist at SNA and as the coordinator of Debito.org. I asked the following:

1) Pursuant to President Biden’s order that all federal employees and military be vaccinated and tested by February 15, does this mean that all US Forces in Japan, both incoming and resident, have been vaccinated, boosted, and tested for Omicron?

2) What happens when members of the US military test positive for Covid? If in Japan, are they quarantined within the base? If outside Japan, are they denied entry and quarantined overseas?

3) Do you have any response to the claims in Japan Times that the USFJ was not conducting pre-departure and post-arrival testing, that it had shortened the period of restrictions on arriving personnel’s movement from fourteen days to ten, and that it had allowed people in the restriction period to move freely within US bases?

I received no reply.

That is disappointing, but symptomatic of the larger problem here: USFJ’s relative indifference the social damage they cause.

I speak from experience. I’ve made several visits inside and around US bases because of the surfeit of “Japanese Only” signs up at local businesses refusing entry to anyone (including myself, a citizen) who look “foreign.” And when I brought this up with the bases, they again never replied. I’ve found they generally wall themselves off from Japan.

That’s stupefyingly irresponsible. USFJ has the duty to recognize that what they do affects Visible Minorities in Japan, whether it be inspiring bigots to slam shop doors in their faces, or giving more ammunition to reactionaries who seek to seal off Japan’s borders.

My point is that in this case, USFJ must engage in better public relations. If the vernacular media is incorrect about US military testing practices or masking behaviors, then USFJ should have regular press conferences issuing clarifications. They must counteract any false reporting about their presence in Japan.

What do they do at present? They publish press statements at their website.

Yet out of the 21 issued since the start of 2020, only four have official Japanese translations attached.

That’s just lazy. It’s not as if USFJ lacks personnel to interface with the Japanese public. They employ plenty of native Japanese speakers. In fact, that’s one of the bases’ fundamental arguments for maintaining their presence–that they employ around 25,000 locals.

And it’s not like the US military is hurting for money, either. Their 2022 budget is their largest in history; Congress even gave them US$24 billion more than what the White House requested!

So let’s invest some of that money and labor in counteracting discrimination.

As I’ve written at length in book Embedded Racism, for generations Japanese media have capitalized on scandal and rumor about the foreign element in Japan, while politicians have leveraged a carefully curated xenophobia for political capital. For the past two years they’ve been getting away with lumping anyone who doesn’t look “Japanese” into the Covid cluster.

That’s simply untenable. It’s also, at least in terms of their express ideals, fundamentally un-American. And the Americans are letting it happen in their name.

If the USFJ is going to be on Japanese soil, they have to recognize that they are part of the community and not cause social damage. That means acting like responsible neighbors towards both Japanese and foreign residents alike.

It also means answering the xenophobes, not letting them set the narrative. Allowing themselves to be scapegoated for yet another failed Covid policy is a bad strategy all around.

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