Restrictions taking a toll on Okinawa businesses

[unhappycamper]

Restrictions taking a toll on Okinawa businesses
By David Allen, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, February 27, 2008

OKINAWA CITY — Gate Two Street, normally a hub of activity on a Saturday night, was brightly lit but ghostly quiet.

The street runs a few blocks from Highway 330 to a Kadena Air Base gate and the sidewalks are usually crowded with young servicemembers visiting the bars and restaurants and other businesses that rely heavily on the military to sustain themselves.

But all people affiliated with the U.S. military were placed on restriction last week for an indefinite period of “reflection” in the wake of several alleged crimes by servicemembers.

No one’s allowed off-base except for medical or religious reasons, unless he or she lives in the community. Even then, people living off-base have been told to restrict themselves to their homes.

Many of the entertainment district’s bars were closed. The only business activity seemed to be a few teenage girls in a clothing store looking over the latest in stateside hip-hop fashions.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52833