Is Japan Really a Sovereign Nation?

Okinawa, which marked the 41st anniversary of its reversion to Japan on May 15, is posing one grave question: Does Japan really qualify as a sovereign state? A ceremony held by the government last month to celebrate Japan's restoration of sovereignty on April 28, 1952, when the Allied occupation of Japan ended, provoked broad protest. That is because for Okinawa, Amami and Ogasawara, it was a day of humiliation when these islands were separated from Japan and put under U.S. administrative control. People who protested against the ceremony argue that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Japan and the United States, which grants various privileges to the U.S. forces in Japan, is undermining Japan's sovereignty. This unequal agreement was signed to allow the United States to station its forces in Japan for a long period of time.