Across Asia: Japan

US teens may be charged

Tokyo police plan to arrest four teenagers from US military families living in Japan on suspicion of attempted murder, Kyodo news agency reported yesterday, as tensions simmered over US bases in Japan.

The four, aged 15-18, are suspected of involvement in an incident in August in which a Japanese woman riding a motorcycle ran into a rope stretched across a road in Tokyo near Yokota Air Base and fractured her skull, Kyodo said, citing investigative sources. Under an agreement between the two governments, US forces based in Japan are not obliged to hand over personnel suspected of a crime outside the base unless they are charged, but there is disagreement as to whether the agreement applies to dependents.