U.S. MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft are parked at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan on the main island of Okinawa in southern Japan, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.
Hiro Komae/AP
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Hiro Komae/AP
TOKYO — Japanese police have arrested a U.S. Marine in connection with the robbery and alleged murder of a woman in Okinawa, officials said Sunday, the latest criminal case in the South Island where the heavy presence of U.S. 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 woman at a hotel in Naha, Okinawa’s capital, and stealing her wallet and backpack in the early hours of Saturday.
Kyodo News, citing police, reported that the woman’s body was found in her hotel room and that 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. A police officer arrested the suspect after spotting him walking alone on a street in the Naha entertainment district on Saturday evening, Kyodo said.
“This case comes as a major shock and adds fear to Okinawans who have already been forced to live next to US bases,” newly elected Okinawa Governor Genta Koja told reporters. “This is absolutely unforgivable and we are outraged.”
“I have to say that the discipline and education of the troops is not working at all,” Koja said, referring to actions taken by the U.S. military in response to past criminal cases.
Some 50,000 US troops are deployed in Japan as part of a bilateral security agreement, around half of them in Okinawa, whose strategic role is seen as increasingly important for the Japan-US military alliance amid growing tensions with China. The shift in Japan’s military focus to the southwest focuses heavily on Okinawa and its neighboring islands.
Okinawans have long complained about noise, pollution and crime linked to U.S. bases, with crimes involving U.S. service members on Okinawa complicating ties between Japan’s central government and the Okinawa administration. This latest case comes as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s office works to further strengthen its Japanese military presence in Okinawa and work more closely with the U.S. military.
“The occurrence of this heinous crime is extremely regrettable,” Takaichi said in her message on
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi summoned US Ambassador to Japan George Glass to his office and expressed his “indignation”, the ministry said in a statement.
Glass, on X, expressed condolences to the victim’s family, adding that the United States is cooperating with the Japanese national and local governments.
The U.S. 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 behavior.”
The Futenma base, located in a densely populated area of central Okinawa, has for decades been a sore point for many Okinawans, who have demanded its relocation. Despite protests, the central government gave the green light to the plan to move the base to Henoko, on Okinawa’s east coast, although the project faced huge delays.
In 1995, the highly publicized rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. service members sparked massive protests against the heavy presence of U.S. troops in Okinawa. The number of arrests linked to American soldiers and their families exceeded 100 last year, according to prefectural police. Repeated sex crimes and some of their late revelations have also sparked outrage in Okinawa in recent years.
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