US Marine arrested in Japan accused of killing woman – National

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese police arrested a U.S. Marine in the suspected robbery and murder of a woman in Okinawa, officials said Sunday, the latest criminal case on the southern island where the heavy presence of American troops remains a sensitive issue.

Okinawa prefectural police said they arrested a 20-year-old Marine stationed at Futenma Air Base on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old local woman at a hotel in Naha, Okinawa’s capital, and took her purse and backpack early Saturday.

Kyodo News Agency, citing police, reported the woman’s body was found in her hotel room and she appeared to have been strangled to death.

Police said security camera footage showed the man believed to be the suspect entering the hotel with the victim and leaving alone. An officer arrested the suspect after seeing him walking alone on a street in the Naha entertainment district on Saturday evening, Kyodo said.

“This case comes as a big shock and adds to the fear of Okinawans who are forced to live near US bases,” newly elected Okinawa Governor Genta Koja told reporters. “This is completely inexcusable and we are outraged.”

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“I have to say, the discipline and education of the troops did not work at all,” Koja said, referring to the actions the US military took in response to past criminal cases.

About 50,000 US troops are deployed in Japan under a bilateral security pact, about half of them on Okinawa, whose strategic role is seen as increasingly important to the Japan-US military alliance amid rising tensions with China.

The shift in Japan’s military focus to the southwest was heavily centered on Okinawa and the nearby islands.

Okinawans have long complained of noise, pollution and crime associated with US bases, and crimes involving US military members in Okinawa complicate relations between Japan’s central government and the Okinawan government.

This latest case comes as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s cabinet seeks to further strengthen Japan’s military presence in Okinawa and work more closely with the US military.

“The occurrence of this heinous crime is deeply regrettable,” Takaichi said in his message on

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned US Ambassador to Japan George Glass to his office and expressed “outrage,” the ministry said in a statement.

Glass, in

The US Marine Corps said in a statement that the suspect was assigned to the III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa and was fully cooperating with Japanese authorities. “The Marine Corps takes these allegations very seriously and expects every Marine to adhere to the highest standards of conduct.”

Futenma Base, located in a densely populated area in central Okinawa, has been an unpleasant place for many Okinawans for decades, who have demanded its relocation. Despite protests, the central government gave construction the green light to relocate the base to Henoko on Okinawa’s east coast, although the project faced major delays.

The mass rape of a 12-year-old girl in 1995 by three members of the US military sparked massive protests against the large presence of US troops in Okinawa. The number of arrests involving US military members and their families exceeded 100 last year, according to prefectural police. Repeated sexual crimes and some of their delayed disclosures have also sparked outrage in Okinawa in recent years.

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