US Marine arrested in Japan on suspicion of murder

A US Marine stationed on Japan's southern island of Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of the murder of a Japanese woman, police said on Sunday.

The suspect "killed the 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet on Saturday", a local police spokesman told AFP.

Crimes including rapes, assaults, hit-and-run and drunk-driving accidents by US personnel have long sparked protests on Okinawa, which bears a disproportionate burden of hosting about 70 percent of US military facilities in Japan.

US Ambassador George Glass posted on social media that he had spoken with Japan's foreign ministry and Okinawa's governor, offering "our sincere condolences and pledging full cooperation as the investigation continues".

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan had lodged a protest with US authorities and called the crime "exceptionally brutal and vicious".

The government has urged the US "to provide maximum cooperation with the investigation, enforce stricter discipline among US military personnel, and take thorough measures to prevent the recurrence of similar crimes," Takaichi said.

Public broadcaster NHK and other Japanese media outlets, citing investigation sources, reported that CCTV footage from near the scene showed a foreign man entering a room with a woman and later leaving with her belongings.

Police then found a 20-year-old man who matched the description of the suspect seen in the footage, and asked him to accompany them voluntarily to a local police station where he was arrested, NHK reported.

He reportedly denied the charges.

"We have lost a family member and are deeply saddened. My parents, in particular, are utterly devastated at the loss of their daughter," the woman's brother said through local police, according to the Asahi Shimbun daily newspaper.

The United States has around 54,000 military personnel stationed in Japan, mostly on Okinawa.

Crimes committed by US personnel have been a thorn in relations between the close security allies.

"Incidents and accidents involving US military personnel cause great anxiety among the local community and must not be allowed to happen," Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said.

Last year, a Japanese court sentenced a US Marine accused of choking and attempting to rape a woman in her 20s to seven years in prison.

In 2017, a former US Marine and civilian military base worker was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a local woman in Okinawa.

The same year, US Forces Japan banned all personnel from consuming alcohol after an intoxicated US Marine crashed his vehicle into a mini-truck, killing its 61-year-old local driver.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, around 6,000 US military personnel have been arrested since Okinawa was returned to Japan from the US in 1972, after World War II.

In 2024, the number of arrests hit 80, the highest in 20 years.