The first week of a federal government shutdown ended Oct. 7, 2025, with little progress in Washington, D.C., toward ending it. (Robert Lingley/U.S. Space Force)

One week into a federal government shutdown, service members, Defense Department civilian employees and their families in Japan and South Korea were taking stock, and asking how much longer.

From Washington, D.C., came little news Tuesday of any attempt to end the deadlock that began Oct. 1. Without an agreement to fund the government for the new fiscal year, many government offices go dark, and the military serves without pay.

Americans with the U.S. military in the Pacific asked how they will afford groceries and rent if the shutdown continues.

Navy veteran Justus Casino, 36, a supervisory library technician at the Marine Corps’ Camp Foster on Okinawa, is going unpaid, he said Tuesday.

“In the back of my head, I am worried,” he said at the Foster library.

“What happens when it’s time for groceries?” he said. “What if it extends to next week? What happens when my kids need food? There’s a lot of kinds of ‘ifs’ about what’s going to happen.”

Two property management firms reported that the Okinawa Military Family Housing office on Kadena Air Base has asked them to waive late fees on rental payments.

Tokuzato Housing waived October’s fees and is awaiting guidance for November, employee Yuki Itokazu said by phone Tuesday. Five or six of their 800-plus military tenants asked Tokuzato to waive the fee.

“The next paycheck is going to affect a lot of people,” she said.

Another 10-15 tenants, mostly service members, sought rent extensions or fee waivers from Seaside Housing on Okinawa, front office manager Roberto Harding said by phone Tuesday. The company rents to about 600 DOD families.

“Right now, we’re trying to work with them depending on how long the shutdown lasts,” he said. “If we can waive late fees, we’re going to try and do that.”

Jenny Goodyear, director of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, Hawaii, by phone Monday said the society, so far, has not been affected.

That could change Oct. 15, which would be the first missed payday for active-duty service members, she said.

“We have had a couple people come in kind of preemptively, but our policy is to wait until the pay is actually missed and we’re able to help them,” she said.

At U.S. bases in South Korea, the shutdown was a growing concern.

“I hope this doesn’t last long, but if it does, we will look to the Korean markets,” said Air Force spouse Ashley Wisley at the Osan Air Base commissary Monday. 

Air Force Staff Sgt. Marcus Steward, an avionics technician at Osan, said he started off prepared.

“Luckily, we have a little nest egg set up for times like this, but it’s still a trying time. Because now I must dip into funds that I had no intention of dipping into,” he said Monday at the base commissary.

He said he and his wife have discussed turning to the base food bank if money gets tight.

“It’s alarming, how food pantries aren’t being prioritized as a resource. It’s another service that we could possibly lose,” he said.

Air Force spouse Ashton Little said history tells her this, too, will pass.

“We’ve seen these come and go before; my husband has been in for 20 years,” she said Monday at the Osan commissary. “If it comes down to it, credit cards exist.”

Stars and Stripes reporter Wyatt Olson contributed to this report.

johnson.trevares@stripes.com

mcelhiney.brian@stripes.com @BrianMcElhiney

breeden.ryan@stripes.com @Breeden_Stripes