The 20-year-old soldier denies the accusation during protests in Okinawa and Tokyo.
Published on October 5, 2026
Japan’s prime minister said the killing of a woman, allegedly by a US marine stationed in Okinawa, is a “heinous crime”, and she called on the US to “strictly enforce discipline” amid growing outrage in Japan.
Sanae Takaichi told lawmakers Monday that the government had urged the United States to cooperate fully with the investigation and called for “strict discipline among U.S. military personnel.”
Recommended Stories
list of 4 elementsend of list
About 54,000 U.S. military personnel, including 18,000 Marines, are stationed in Japan. The majority of these forces are based on Okinawa, a Japanese island that came under American administrative control at the end of World War II and was returned to Japan in 1972.
Crimes such as rapes, assaults, hit-and-runs and drunk driving incidents committed by U.S. personnel have long sparked protests on the island.
The new case involves a 20-year-old Marine who was arrested on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in the city of Naha and stealing her wallet, police said Sunday.
Kyodo News, citing police, reported that the woman’s body was found in a hotel room and that she appeared to have been strangled.
The Marine was arrested by Japanese police on Sunday and sent to prosecutors on Monday, according to Kyodo News. He denied the accusations.
“The occurrence of such a heinous crime is extremely regrettable,” Takaichi said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Monday that Tokyo “will continue to urge the U.S. side to strictly enforce discipline” among its soldiers in Japan.
Kihara, charged with mitigating the impact of U.S. forces in Okinawa, said Tokyo had protested to the United States at “different levels.”
The incident sparked outrage across Japan, and the Japanese Foreign and Defense Ministries summoned the U.S. ambassador and the commander of U.S. forces in Japan.
According to Jiji Press, about 100 people protested in front of the Okinawa Prefectural government building on Sunday and shouted, “How much longer will we have to endure all this?”
Around 100 more people took part in a rally in Naha on Sunday, Japanese media reported.
Sorane Sakihama, 24, from Okinawa, who organized a similar rally in Tokyo on Sunday, said she cried when she learned of the woman’s death.
“We couldn’t protect her. It made me angry and sad,” the university student told AFP, adding that she planned to stage another protest outside the US embassy on Tuesday evening.
“I want to ask them: why are these soldiers stationed here? They could say they are there to protect lives or increase security. But how can they say that when one of their own has taken his life?”
Since Okinawa was returned to Japan, about 6,000 U.S. service members have been arrested in Japan, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
Gn headline
