Photo/Illutration Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi during a Feb. 4 news conference (Yuichi Nobira)

A communications mix-up has created a new rift between the Foreign Ministry and U.S. Forces Japan over COVID-19 measures concerning thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan.

U.S. military officials are insisting they informed the Foreign Ministry in September that military personnel being dispatched to Japan would be exempted from COVID-19 testing when they departed the United States for duty in Japan.

But the Foreign Ministry maintains it was made aware of the exemption in late December.

“Even closer cooperation will be needed in the future to ensure that such a situation does not emerge again,” a glum-looking Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a Feb. 4 news conference.

U.S. Forces Japan initiated the testing exemption from September on grounds COVID-19 vaccinations had made great strides in the United States.

But from late last year, COVID-19 cases at U.S. military bases in Okinawa Prefecture and elsewhere, as well as in surrounding communities, began surging, mainly due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

Foreign Ministry officials said Dec. 24 they confirmed the testing exemption after consulting with U.S. military officials. Ministry officials offered a similar explanation during Diet proceedings.

But on Feb. 2, Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) reported that U.S. military authorities responded with a comment that Japanese officials were notified about the exemption much earlier.

That led the Foreign Ministry to inform U.S. military officials that their understanding of the situation was incorrect.

At his Feb. 4 news conference, Hayashi explained that the U.S. military submitted a response the previous day. According to Hayashi, the U.S. military continued to maintain that it informed the Foreign Ministry of the exemption at a much earlier date.

But Foreign Ministry officials again informed the U.S. military that no such notice was received.

Hayashi admitted that a communications mix-up occurred and added that the issue would be taken up at a subcommittee under the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee that discusses quarantine and public health matters.

Hayashi also acknowledged at the news conference that Foreign Ministry measures to ensure the U.S. military was complying with its promised infection-prevention steps may not have been sufficient.

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