Published on October 4, 2026
Japan summoned the US envoy after the arrest of a US marine suspected of robbing and murdering a woman.
The American ambassador to Japan, George Glass, pledged Sunday to “fully cooperate.” Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard is charged with the murder of Anna Yagi, 39, on the southern island of Okinawa, where thousands of U.S. troops are stationed.
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“The occurrence of such an extremely brutal and heinous incident is a matter of deep regret,” Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi wrote on social media. “As the Japanese government, we have lodged a strong protest with the US side, while firmly demanding maximum cooperation in the investigation.”
Glass said the United States “upheld our policy of full cooperation with the investigation” while sharing his condolences on social media. The 20-year-old sailor denied the accusations.
CCTV footage, according to local Japanese media, showed a non-Japanese man entering a hotel room with the Japanese woman in the city of Naha. Later, footage shows the man leaving alone, with what appears to be the woman’s belongings, the AFP news agency reports.
“Incidents and accidents involving US military personnel cause considerable anxiety in the local community and must never happen,” Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on social media.
Japan hosts approximately 54,000 U.S. military personnel, including 18,000 Marines. 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.
Since the handover, around 6,000 American military personnel have been arrested in Japan, according to the local newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
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