A Year of Courts-Martial at Yokosuka, Japan: 2020
Yokosuka, Japan held 14 courts-martial in 2020, tried from January 2020 through October 2020. 38% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 62% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 4 min read
Trends › By Installation › Yokosuka, Japan › 2020
Short answer: Yokosuka, Japan held 14 courts-martial in 2020, tried from January 2020 through October 2020. 38% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 62% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Article 107 (false official statements) was charged in 36% of the cases, compared with 12% service-wide.
Punitive Discharges Were Less Common
5 of the 13 convicted enlisted members received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (38%). Across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2020, the share was 62%. 2 of the 5 were dishonorable discharges.
1 convicted officer or warrant officer appears in the records and was not dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
False Statements and Drug Charges
All 14 cases have a charge list. Article 107 (false official statements) and Article 112a (wrongful use or possession of controlled substances) each appeared in 5 cases (36%). Their service-wide shares were 12% and 30%. Assault under Article 128 appeared in 4 cases (29%), lower than the 36% service-wide.
Conspiracy under Article 81 and Article 120c (other sexual misconduct) each appeared in 2 cases (14%). Article 113 (misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019, drunken or reckless driving since) also appeared in 2 cases. A case with several articles is counted under each one.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 107 False official statements | 5 | 36% | 12% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 5 | 36% | 30% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 4 | 29% | 36% |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 2 | 14% | 7% |
| Art. 113 Misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019, drunken or reckless driving since | 2 | 14% | 4% |
| Art. 120c Other sexual misconduct | 2 | 14% | 4% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 1 | 7% | 8% |
| Art. 133 Conduct unbecoming an officer | 1 | 7% | 2% |
Mostly Guilty Pleas
11 accused pleaded guilty and 3 entered a not-guilty or mixed plea. Contested cases made up 21% of those with a plea recorded, compared with 30% across the Navy and Marine Corps. None of the 3 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal.
Confinement
All 14 cases ended in a conviction, and 10 of those sentences included confinement. The median confinement was 5 months, shorter than the 6-month median across the Navy and Marine Corps. Among the sentences with confinement, a quarter were 1 year or longer.
These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in the case.
A Mostly Junior Enlisted Group
10 accused were junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 3 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 1 was an officer or warrant officer. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, 64% of the accused were junior enlisted.
4 of the 14 cases were general courts-martial (29%), compared with 41% service-wide. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Kaneohe Bay and Okinawa
Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay tried 20 cases in 2020 and Okinawa, Japan tried 23. Their median confinement was 9 months and 4 months. Their punitive discharge rates were 56% and 62%, both higher than the 38% at Yokosuka.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yokosuka, Japan | 14 | 21% | 0 of 3 | 5 months | 38% |
| Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay | 20 | — | — | 9 months | 56% |
| Okinawa, Japan | 23 | — | — | 4 months | 62% |
What the Records Do Not Show
Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea and forum, and plea counts here use only the records that list them. Cases resolved by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action are not in these records. The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Yokosuka, Japan with a trial date in 2020 (14 cases).
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Yokosuka, Japan: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- What Yokosuka, Japan Tried in 2019 (previous / next)
- Inside 51 Courts-Martial at Yokosuka, Japan, 2019–2023 (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2015
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2017
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2018
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2020
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2021
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.