The 7-year-old daughter of an Okinawa-based Marine died last year after being denied medical care at Japanese hospitals, prompting an investigation that found lack of care has sometimes proved fatal for Defense Department personnel in Japan.

American military bases across Japan are likely to copy an Army program that employs interpreters to help U.S. civilians obtain off-post health care, according to the Army’s top general in the country.

The U.S. military community must navigate hurdles to access health care, both at home and abroad, according to a recent report from the Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General.

At least a portion of DODEA’s nearly 3,000 employees in Japan are looking for a way out.

Health care providers at Yokota, the airlift hub in western Tokyo; Camp Zama, the headquarters of U.S. Army Japan southwest of Tokyo; and Naval Hospital Okinawa at the Marine Corps’ Camp Foster all freed additional time for DOD civilians to make space-available appointments for chronic medical conditions.

Health care advocates say obstacles in the Japanese system complicate the picture for Americans, including language barriers, time constraints, upfront payment and even denial of care in an emergency.

The Defense Health Agency said DOD civilian employees in the Indo-Pacific region may seek treatment again at base hospitals for chronic health conditions on a space-available basis.

Defense Department civilians with chronic health conditions can be treated once again — on a space-available basis — by on-base doctors in the Indo-Pacific region according to a new Defense Health Agency memo.

Robert Hawthorne, chief of the American Forces Network Pacific technical services division, died Thursday at this base in western Tokyo after suffering a heart attack.

Thousands of Defense Department employees in Japan, unhappy that Congress trimmed their access to health care at military hospitals this year, turned out at a series of town halls to let the Pentagon hear their dissatisfaction.